In a budget reprogramming request to Congress, the Defense Department is seeking to set aside over $132 million to pay the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for its share of identity monitoring and recovery services in the wake of the OPM hack, according to a recently released document.
Originally submitted to Congress in July 28, the reprogramming action moves funds that “are required to provide a suite of identity monitoring and recovery services” for the department population affected by the OPM background investigation database hack.
“Funds will pay for individual notifications; full service identity restoration support and victim recovery assistant; identity theft insurance; identity monitoring for minor children; continuous credit monitoring; and fraud monitoring services beyond credit files,” for Defense Department employees and contractors exposed, the request said.
Last month, OPM asked government departments and agencies to help pay for the identity and credit monitoring services of the 21.5 million persons affected by the background investigation data.
The Defense Department is dividing the identity monitoring costs by service. The largest resources would come from the Army and Air Force. The Army is allocating $54.3, made available by $12.8 million lower than projected Overseas Station Allowance (OSA) execution, $22.5 million lower than projected enlisted separation payments, and $19 million from lower than projected enlisted Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) payments.
The Air Force is allocating nearly $36.7 million. The funding comes from Centrally Managed Programs (like overseas storm damage funds).
There are also defense-wide allocations of $22.6 million made available from several areas.
A total of $10 million is made available due to the closure and consolation of several domestic and international schools, $2 million from the Combatant Commander Initiative Fund because of decreased operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; $3.8 million from the Office of the Secretary of Defense due to contracts awarded for less than projected; $5.5 million from a civilian hiring lag and lower than expected costs for rent and equipment at the Office of the Inspector General; and $1.3 million from destruction operations of 10 recovered chemical-filled munitions in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, being completed under budget under Chemical Agents and Munitions Destruction.