In an ironic twist of fate, the medical records of the co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, Rep. Joe Barton, and 3,000 other people were stolen when a National Institutes of Health (NIH) laptop containing the information was taken from the trunk of a car in late February. 

As co-chair and co-founder of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, Barton worked to educate other members of Congress and their staffs about methods of improving and protecting individual privacy.  Unfortunately for Barton, those lessons did not make it to the trunk of a car parked at NIH where records of his heart disease, MRIs, name, and birth date were stored on a password-protected computer.

The Texas Republican learned that his records were lost when a Fed-Ex parcel arrived at his Texas home notifying him of the breach.

"Maybe it's a sign from heaven that the time for this type of legislation has arrived," Barton said.

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