[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 84 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 84

To close the loophole that allowed the 9/11 hijackers to obtain credit 
     cards from United States banks that financed their terrorist 
  activities, to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot obtain credit 
 cards to evade United States immigration laws, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 6, 2009

  Mr. Vitter introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To close the loophole that allowed the 9/11 hijackers to obtain credit 
     cards from United States banks that financed their terrorist 
  activities, to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot obtain credit 
 cards to evade United States immigration laws, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. VERIFICATION OF IDENTITY FOR NON-UNITED STATES PERSONS 
              OPENING BANK ACCOUNTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 5318(l) of title 31, United States Code, 
is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (3) through (6) as 
        paragraphs (4) through (7), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
            ``(3) Restrictions on verifying identity.--
                    ``(A) Customer information.--For the purpose of 
                verifying the identity of an individual who is a non-
                United States person seeking to open an account in 
                accordance with the regulations issued under this 
                section, a financial institution may only accept--
                            ``(i) a social security number;
                            ``(ii) a passport number and the country of 
                        issuance;
                            ``(iii) an alien identification card 
                        number; or
                            ``(iv) any combination of items described 
                        in clauses (i) through (iii).
                    ``(B) Customer verification through documents.--For 
                the purpose of verifying the identity of an individual 
                who is a non-United States person seeking to open an 
                account in accordance with regulations issued under 
                this section, a financial institution may not accept 
                identification documents issued by a foreign 
                government, other than an unexpired passport.
                    ``(C) Definition.--As used in this paragraph, the 
                term `non-United States person' means any individual 
                that is not a citizen or national of the United States, 
                as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and 
                Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101).''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 5318(l)(6) of title 31, United 
States Code, as redesignated by this section, is amended by striking 
``(4)'' and inserting ``(5)''.
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