The bill would have allowed a person with reason to believe that they were at risk for identity theft to seek an immediate credit freeze. Thirteen other states, including California have such a law at this time.

McKenna says identity theft is big business.

He told KOMO 4 News: "Freezing your credit is the single most effective thing a consumer can do to protect themselves from identity theft if they have lost personal information."

The bill was expected to race through the Legislature. But it died in a Senate committee. McKenna is not the only person upset by that.

Alan Bohling is president of Seattle Boat. He is also a victim of corporate identity theft.

A bad guy filled out applications for business credit using the corporate name of Seattle Boat. He used a phony federal tax number. No one checked, so the bad guy got credit cards from Best Buy, Lowe's, Staples and others.

Bohling said it took two and a half months to stop the charges despite the fact that he reported the apparent identify theft within a few days: "The perpetrator had accumulated $60,000 in credit card debt in our name and attempted another $60,000 that was stopped before he accomplished it."

Bohling doesn't understand why the Legislature killed the bill: "I'm terribly disappointed because that's the only way we are going to stop this activity from occurring."

Credit Unions made the bill a priority too. Susan Streifel, president and CEO of Woodstone Credit Union says credit unions across the state consistently are faced with reports of identity theft. She added: "This bill would have given consumers the ability to protect themselves before identity theft occurred."

The attorney general tells KOMO 4 News large retail chains appear to have been worried that the bill would touch off a flood of credit freezes. But he says California has had the same law for two years and in that time fewer than 500 freezes have been filed.

He added sometimes they are necessary. The Attorney General says it's time for businesses to put the interests of consumers first. He added: "Their attitude is, well, we know this is best for consumers. They should be able to freeze their own credit, we know what is best for them, and I think that's a very patronizing attitude."

McKenna says he will continue to push the legislation, but it appears to be dead for this year.