[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2337 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2337

 To repeal section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 
                      Responsibility Act of 1996.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 24, 1999

     Mr. Paul (for himself, Mr. Barr of Georgia, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. 
  Hostettler, Mr. Meeks of New York, and Mr. Campbell) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government 
                                 Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To repeal section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 
                      Responsibility Act of 1996.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 
        Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (referred to in this Act 
        as ``IIRIRA'') requires States to collect, certify, and display 
        social security account numbers on State-issued driver's 
        licenses and conform with federally mandated uniform features 
        for driver's licenses.
            (2) Section 656 of IIRIRA threatens the privacy of all 
        people living in the United States.
            (3) Section 656 of IIRIRA expands the use and dissemination 
        of the social security account number.
            (4) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires Federal agencies to 
        accept only documents that meet the standards laid out in that 
        section, thus creating a de facto national identification card.
            (5) Section 656 of IIRIRA preempts State authority over the 
        issuance of State driver's licenses, violating the Unfunded 
        Mandate Reform Act of 1994 (referred to in this Act as 
        ``UMRA'').
            (6) The actual costs of compliance with section 656 far 
        exceed the $100,000,000 threshold established by UMRA.
            (7) Section 656 of IIRIRA preempts the traditional State 
        function of issuing driver's licenses and places it in the 
        hands of officials of the National Highway Traffic Safety 
        Administration.
            (8) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires States to conform their 
        driver's licenses and other identity documents to a detailed 
        Federal standard.
            (9) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires that each license 
        contain either in visual or electronic form the individual's 
        social security account number unless the State goes through 
        the burdensome and invasive procedures to check each 
        individual's identity with the Social Security Administration.
            (10) Section 656 of IIRIRA will greatly expand the 
        dissemination and misuse of the social security account number 
        at a time when the Congress, the States, and the public are 
        actually taking measures to reduce the use of social security 
        numbers as drivers' identity numbers.
            (11) Only 7 States require the social security account 
        number to be displayed on driver's licenses.
            (12) 9 States have repealed their requirement that driver's 
        licenses display the social security account number since 1992.
            (13) The 10th amendment to the Constitution deprives the 
        Federal Government of all constitutional authority to establish 
        standards for State driver's licenses, or any other sort of 
        national identification card.
            (14) On June 17, 1998, the National Highway Traffic Safety 
        Administration promulgated in the Federal Register (23 C.F.R. 
        part 1331) a proposed rule (entitled ``State-Issued Driver's 
        Licenses and Comparable Identification Documents; Proposed 
        Rule'') that provides the basis for a national identification 
        card.
            (15) On October 20, 1998, the House of Representatives 
        voted 333 to 95 to pass the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency 
        Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999. This Act contains a 
        provision which prohibits the National Highway Traffic Safety 
        Administration from issuing a final rule on national 
        identification cards, as required under section 656 of IIRIRA.

SEC. 2. REPEAL OF SECTION 656 OF IIRIRA.

    Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 
Responsibility Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 301 note) is repealed.
                                 <all>