Two federal officials have called on Congress to introduce and pass a bill to require businesses to notify consumers when data breaches occur, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

Dan Verton writes that Edith Ramirez,  federal trade commissioner and Mythili Raman, the Justice Department‘s acting assistant attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday that legislation is needed to combat identity fraud.

“Never has the need for legislation been greater,” Ramirez told lawmakers, according to the report.

“American consumers should know when they are at risk of identify theft or other harms because of a data security breach,” Raman added, according to the article.

FedScoop reports that executives from two major retail outlets testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about recent hacking incidents that exposed payment card data of more than one million customers.

“Congress needs to pass laws that promote data security. Right now, there’s no federal law setting out clear security standards at merchants and data brokers. And there’s no federal law requiring companies to tell their customers when their data has been stolen,” said Sen. Al Franken.