About 150 House Democrats are asking the White House for help in getting money added to the emergency wartime and disaster funding bill to help provide protection for veterans and service members who face the threat of identify theft after several Department of Veterans Affairs data bases were stolen last month.

A letter to President Bush, prepared by Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., asks for money that would go to credit monitoring and protection services for veterans, service members and survivors

In a statement, Salazar said delays and misinformation about what records may have been lost “hurts veterans and military families at a time when we should be taking aggressive steps to protect their identities and financial standing.”

In the letter, lawmakers said the federal government “has a duty to ensure that the financial health of our nation's veterans and military families is not harmed as a result of this most unfortunate event.”

“Any credit reporting assistance provided must not come from previously appropriated or budgeted dollars for the Department of Veterans' Affairs. It is not fair, nor is it right, to risk access to services within the VA because of the theft of personal data,” the letter says.

The letter does not name a specific amount of money.

Salazar has some particular help in mind. He and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are sponsors of legislation that would provide free credit monitoring for one year for everyone affected by the theft plus a second free credit report each year for two years. Additionally, the bill would create a credit ombudsman at the VA to help answer questions by veterans and service members and to get involved if identity theft is discovered.

An earlier version of the Salazar bill would have cost about $1.2 billion.

The Bush administration has not, to this point, been much help in getting more money for veterans programs and congressional negotiators working on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill voted to kill an extra $400 million for veterans’ health care.