Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were informed this week of a data breach involving the congressional medical office that may have compromised personal information — including their prescription history.

The intrusions occurred March 1 and 3 and targeted RXNT, a medical software provider used by the Office of the Attending Physician to manage care for members of Congress, according to letters sent this week to affected individuals that were reviewed by Blue Light News.

Brian Monahan, the Capitol’s attending physician, is making personal calls to staff and lawmakers whose data are affected, according to one person contacted by phone this week and alerted that their prescription history was among those breached.

RXNT’s software is intended to “securely transmit prescription information to pharmacies for fulfillment,” Monahan’s office explained in the letters to patients. Among the data accessed in the RXNT breach includes names, birthdays, addresses, prescription information, doctor information and pharmacy information.

Under federal law, the data breach has to be reported within 60 days of the intrusion being discovered. RXNT notified the attending physician’s office on the last possible day allowed under federal health privacy rules. That, in turn, might have delayed the OAP’s review of the impact of the breach on Capitol Hill patients, according to two people familiar with the timeline and granted anonymity to share private deliberations.

It is not clear what foreign or domestic entity conducted the breach and where the sensitive data on lawmakers’ health could end up.

Financial data, insurance information and Social Security numbers were not compromised, nor were any patient records maintained by the Office of the Attending Physician that were not shared with RXNT. Such records, which include extensive information on lawmakers’ health history and medical treatments, “remain secured within the walls of Congress” and are “not cloud based,” according to the notice shared with affected patients on Capitol Hill.

“The OAP only provides the minimum information required to process prescription services,” the letter reads.

The Office of the Attending Physician operates several small medical clinics on the Capitol campus where Navy medical personnel handle both emergencies and primary health care for lawmakers, while also providing vaccinations and minor medical services for congressional aides. Staff are able to procure prescriptions through the OAP in limited circumstances, including for official travel and follow-up care.

Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday the allegations against Rep. Chuck Edwards are “serious” and that he has spoken to the North Carolina Republican — who reportedly denied them all.

Johnson also noted an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct and harassment accusations against Edwards, who is alleged to have had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a staffer, among other things.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida is pushing back against assertions that the state’s new congressional map was drawn to help Republicans, arguing in a new legal filing that other states such as Virginia and Illinois have engaged in much more blatant partisan gerrymandering.

Voting rights and civil rights groups have filed multiple lawsuits challenging a new map pushed into law by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis. They have argued that the map, which could result in Republicans picking up four seats, is a clear violation of voter approved anti-gerrymandering standards and “one of the most extreme congressional maps” enacted in the past 50 years.

A circuit court judge will hold a hearing Friday on whether to temporarily block the new map and instead let the state’s old congressional map — which was also recommended by the DeSantis administration back in 2022 — be used for the midterms. The 2022 map gave Republicans a 20-8 edge.

Lawyers representing the state filed their response Wednesdayand made several arguments — some of them procedural — as to why the new map should be allowed to remain in place. They argue, for example, that it’s too close to the August primary to undo the map approved just two weeks ago.

But the 29-page filing also insists those challenging the map have produced “scant evidence” to back their claims.

“The claim of partisan favoritism is tethered only to maps showing the district lines overlayed onto the results of a few elections, hearsay from their supposed experts, thoughts about tweets, their perspective on Fox News coverage, and a single factual representation from the governor’s map drawer,” the lawyers for the governor and state wrote.

They also asserted that “finally, on its face, Florida’s map lacks the telltale signs of a partisan gerrymander” and contrasted that with maps put in place in Democratic states that include “blue spaghetti” and “partisan thunderbolts.”

Florida’s “Fair Districts” standards prohibit redrawing congressional districts for partisan gain or to help or hurt an incumbent. Democrats and other critics have insisted the new map is “illegal” because it violates these standards. The map, for example, reconfigured districts in the Tampa Bay and Orlando area — including splitting off Hispanic voters that had been in the district now held by Democratic Rep. Darren Soto.

The Florida Legislature approved the new map in late April just days after the DeSantis administration submitted it to lawmakers after it was given first to Fox News. During a legislative hearing, a top aide to the governor acknowledged he relied on partisan data.

But in a legal memorandum, the governor’s general counsel argued the state no longer needs to follow “Fair Districts” because of a state Supreme Court ruling on another portion of the amendment. That argument is also in the state’s filing that calls “Fair Districts” unconstitutional.

“The danger is apparent: Allowing a law to stumble along after a court has excised some of its component parts undermines the entire legislative scheme,” states the filing. “The danger becomes more acute when confronting language — as here — adopted by citizen initiative.”

The state’s legal filing further contends a trial is needed first to establish where there is proof that the map was drawn for partisan gain. The state’s lawyers argue top aide Jason Poreda was never asked what types of partisan data he used or how it was used. They also dispute findings from experts about the potential outcomes of the new map.

President Donald Trump and the White House first started urging GOP-led states to engage in mid-decade redistricting last year. Shortly afterward, DeSantis began calling for changes in Florida’s map as well. He said that one South Florida district relied on racial considerations that were likely to be ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court and the state’s population has grown in the past few years. The new map, however, still relies on the same Census data that was used in 2022.