[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1223 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1223

  To protect personal employment information reported to the National 
                        Directory of New Hires.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 26, 1997

   Mr. Burns introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To protect personal employment information reported to the National 
                        Directory of New Hires.

    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 ``Employee Information Protection Act 
of 1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 
        Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193; 110 Stat.2105) 
        requires Federal and State child support enforcement agencies 
        to implement new programs to collect overdue child support 
        payments, thereby reducing the burden on taxpayers by lowering 
        welfare payments.
            (2) Among the new programs created under such Act and the 
        amendments made by such Act, is the National Directory of New 
        Hires, to be administered by the Social Security 
        Administration, under agreement with the Office of Child 
        Support Enforcement of the Department of Health and Human 
        Services. Under this program, States are required to develop a 
        reporting system whereby employers must report to their 
        respective States the name, address, and social security number 
        of all newly hired employees. States must forward the new hire 
        data within 3 days of receipt to the National Directory of New 
        Hires, where the data will be checked against the Federal Case 
        Registry of Child Support Orders to detect overdue child 
        support.
            (3) The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 
        Reconciliation Act of 1996 does not limit how long employee 
        data may remain in the National Directory of New Hires, and the 
        Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Department of Health 
        and Human Services has not developed any such limits as of 
        September 15, 1997. In addition to the Office of Child Support 
        Enforcement of the Department of Health and Human Services and 
        the Social Security Administration, the Department of the 
        Treasury has access to the directory and the Secretary of 
        Health and Human Services has the discretion to provide 
        researchers access to the directory.
            (4) The overwhelming majority of newly hired individuals do 
        not have child support orders entered against them, yet their 
        personal data can be viewed by Federal agencies without such 
        individuals' knowledge or consent.
            (5) Recent disclosures of unauthorized viewing of taxpayer 
        information by officials of the Internal Revenue Service 
        highlight the potential for abuse of such information and the 
        need for safeguarding measures.
            (6) Several States with new hire reporting programs have 
        time limits on data retention ranging from 6 to 9 months.
            (7) A 6-month limit on retention of new hire data in the 
        National Directory of New Hires, from the date such data is 
        entered, would allow sufficient time to check the data against 
        the Federal Case Registry of Child Support Orders and to 
        initiate action against individuals with overdue child support, 
        and would reduce the potential for abuse and misuse of the 
        data.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to safeguard personal 
information concerning employees who do not have child support orders 
pending against them by placing a reasonable time limit on the 
retention of new hire data reported to the National Directory of New 
Hires.

SEC. 3. LIMIT ON NEW HIRE DATA RETENTION.

    (a) Requirement To Delete Data After 6 Months.--Section 453(i)(2) 
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 653(i)(2)) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: ``Information entered into such database 
shall be deleted 6 months after the date of entry.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect as if included in the enactment of title III of the 
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 
(Public Law 104-193; 110 Stat. 2198).
                                 <all>