[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2581 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2581

   To protect the privacy of individuals with respect to the Social 
                            Security number.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 30, 1997

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To protect the privacy of individuals with respect to the 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 ``Social Security Privacy Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. PROTECTING PRIVACY BY PROHIBITING USE OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY 
              NUMBER WITHOUT CONSENT.

    (a) In General.--Part A of title XI of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

 ``prohibition of certain misuses of the social security account number

    ``Sec. 1146. (a) Prohibition of Commercial Acquisition or 
Distribution.--No person may buy, sell, offer for sale, take or give in 
exchange, pledge or give in pledge, or request as a condition of 
entering into a contract, any information for the purpose of conveying 
by means of such information any individual's social security account 
number without the written consent of such individual.
    ``(b) Prohibition of Use of Social Security Number.--No person may 
utilize any individual's social security account number without the 
written consent of such individual.
    ``(c) Prerequisites for Consent.--In order for consent to exist 
under subsection (a) or (b), the person engaged in, or seeking to 
engage in, an activity described in such subsection shall--
            ``(1) inform the individual of all the purposes for which 
        the number will be utilized and the persons to whom the number 
        will be known; and
            ``(2) obtain affirmatively expressed consent in writing.
    ``(d) Limitation.--Subsections (a) and (b) shall not apply with 
respect to the last 5 digits of an individual's social security account 
number.
    ``(e) Exceptions.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to 
prohibit any use of social security account numbers permitted or 
required under section 205(c)(2) of this Act, section 7(a)(2) of the 
Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a note; 88 Stat. 1909), or section 
6109(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
    ``(f) Regulation by States.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to prohibit any State authority from enacting or enforcing 
laws consistent with this section for the protection of privacy.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section applies 
with respect to violations occurring on and after January 1, 1999.
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