[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2404 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2404

  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prohibit tax-related 
   mailings from disclosing in any public way an individual's social 
                            security number.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 4, 1997

  Mr. Filner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prohibit tax-related 
   mailings from disclosing in any public way an individual's social 
                            security number.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stop the Theft of Our Social 
Security Numbers Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF DISCLOSURE OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS ON TAX-
              RELATED MAILINGS.

    (a) In General.--Section 6109 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
(relating to identifying numbers) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection:
    ``(i) Protection of Social Security Numbers.--In any case in which 
an individual's identifying number for purposes of this title is the 
social security account number issued to such individual for purposes 
of section 205(c)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act, no officer or 
employee of the Department of the Treasury may include such number--
            ``(1) on the outside of any tax-related mailing to any 
        person, or
            ``(2) as part of the contents of any tax-related mailing to 
        any person unless--
                    ``(A) the contents are in an envelope (or other 
                appropriate wrapper) which is sealed, and
                    ``(B) such number may not be viewed without opening 
                such envelope (or wrapper).
For purposes of this subsection, the term `tax-related mailing' means 
any mailing related to the administration of this title.''
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall take 
effect on October 1, 1997.
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