Washington can simply make new laws tomorrow. That's what they should do in Washington - make laws. The biggest difference here should be in who they make the laws for: individual citizens or public-private interests competing for the taxpayer dollar.
One thing you can be sure of, vendor lobbies don't care about your rights or who you are. You shouldn't leave something as personal as your identity up to them and their pet legislators.
SOURCES:
[1] Information revelation and privacy in online social networks; http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1102199.1102214
[2] Example of identity in political power struggle; http://books.google.com/books?id=OcFEhWRRnFwC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=Identity+%26++power+struggle&source=bl&ots=QGEC-xYlrP&sig=fD8Bi0Wb2LO3p-Ipyah1bT6wamY&hl=en&ei=BtbxStipDMSl8QblxuSECQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Identity%20%26%20%20power%20struggle&f=false
[3] 'State Identity' and 'Collective Self': Problems and Solutions http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/5/9/9/3/p59936_index.html
[4] Wikipedia entry : click here
[5]Chuck Schumer quotes; click here
