Washington, D.C. ? Identity thieves continue to have access to Social Security numbers on public documents despite federal efforts to protect that information, according to a congressional report.

The Government Accountability Office said the problem has been complicated by the recent practice of state and local record keepers of making public records such as property deeds or court records available on the Internet. It said that even truncated versions of Social Security numbers can be vulnerable to ID thieves.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who requested the GAO report, said at a House hearing Thursday that he planned to reintroduce legislation to ban the display of Social Security numbers on the Internet by state and local record keepers and require consistent standards for truncation.

The report said the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are the only federal agencies that commonly provide records containing Social Security numbers to state and local public record keepers.