[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 97 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 97

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal 
Government should take all appropriate measures to ensure that citizens 
  continue to be provided with paper-based information, products and 
 services, and public notices while providing, where appropriate, the 
 ability for all citizens to opt-in to electronic delivery if they so 
                                choose.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 5, 2013

    Mr. Duffy (for himself and Mr. Michaud) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 
                           Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal 
Government should take all appropriate measures to ensure that citizens 
  continue to be provided with paper-based information, products and 
 services, and public notices while providing, where appropriate, the 
 ability for all citizens to opt-in to electronic delivery if they so 
                                choose.

Whereas the Federal Government has a duty to provide important information about 
        government programs and services in a manner that is accessible to all 
        citizens;
Whereas paper-based information enhances transparency while improving access and 
        citizen participation;
Whereas more than one-third of the United States population lacks broadband 
        access at home;
Whereas according to the Pew Internet Project, 47 percent of people in the 
        United States age 65 and older do not use Internet or E-mail;
Whereas according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 8.2 
        percent of United States households accounting for 17,000,000 adults are 
        unbanked and a further 20.1 percent of households with 51,000,000 adults 
        are underbanked;
Whereas recent surveys by major polling organizations have confirmed that the 
        majority of people in the United States would like to continue receiving 
        paper-based information, products, and services;
Whereas the United States Treasury has ended the sale of paper savings bonds, 
        which can now only be bought online in electronic format, despite the 
        fact that paper bonds comprised $1,400,000,000 of the $1,900,000,000 in 
        savings bonds sold during fiscal year 2012;
Whereas the Social Security Administration has eliminated the paper version of 
        the Annual Earnings Statement, an important financial planning tool, and 
        the only one many low-income United States citizens will ever receive;
Whereas the Social Security Administration has announced plans to move virtually 
        all seniors currently receiving Social Security benefit checks through 
        the mail into a direct deposit or debit card method of delivery;
Whereas elderly citizens may be unfamiliar or uneasy with electronic commerce 
        and are particularly susceptible to identity theft and other fraudulent 
        schemes;
Whereas the Social Security Administration receives an average of 50 reports of 
        direct deposit-related fraud each day related to schemes perpetrated on 
        elderly and disabled beneficiaries;
Whereas the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made the decision to discontinue 
        mailing tax forms to taxpayers still filing by mail in 2010, forcing 
        consumers without Internet access to source these important documents 
        from public libraries or post offices, where availability of tax forms 
        is often inconsistent;
Whereas 20,000,000 returns were submitted on paper in 2010;
Whereas the IRS has also begun issuing tax refunds in the form of prepaid debit 
        cards, which has contributed to a proliferation of violent criminal 
        activity, fraud, and has resulted in a loss to the United States 
        Treasury of $5,200,000,000 in fraudulent refunds in 2010 alone; and
Whereas the Veterans' Administration has invested $491,000,000 in a paperless 
        claims system, yet claims taking more than 125 days to process have 
        increased by a factor of three since its introduction: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the Federal Government should take all appropriate 
        measures to ensure that citizens continue to be provided with 
        paper-based information, products and services, and public 
        notices while providing, where appropriate, the ability for all 
        citizens to opt-in to electronic delivery if they so choose; 
        and
            (2) decisions by Federal Government agencies regarding the 
        elimination of paper-based information, products, or services 
        should be subject to oversight by Congress.
                                 <all>