[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 59 (Monday, May 15, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3946-S3948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. GREGG (for himself and Mr. Dodd):
  S. 2554. A bill to amend title XI of the Social Security Act to 
prohibit the display of an individual's Social Security number for 
commercial purposes without the consent of the individual; to the 
Committee on Finance.


                            AMY BOYER'S LAW

  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of 
the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2554

       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 ``Amy Boyer's Law''.

     SEC. 2. PROTECTING PRIVACY BY PROHIBITING DISPLAY OF THE 
                   SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC 
                   FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES 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 number

       ``Sec. 1150A. (a) Limitation on Display.--Except as 
     otherwise provided in this section, no person may display to 
     the public any individual's social security number, or any 
     identifiable derivative of such number, without the 
     affirmatively expressed consent, electronically or in 
     writing, of such individual.
       ``(b) Prohibition of Wrongful Use as Personal 
     Identification Number.--No person may obtain any individual's 
     social security number, or any identifiable derivative of 
     such number, for purposes of locating or identifying an 
     individual with the intent to physically injure, harm, or use 
     the identity of the individual for illegal purposes.
       ``(c) Prerequisites for Consent.--In order for consent to 
     exist under subsection (a), the person displaying, or seeking 
     to display, an individual's social security number, or any 
     identifiable derivative of such number, shall--
       ``(1) inform the individual of the general purposes for 
     which the number will be utilized and the types of persons to 
     whom the number may be available; and
       ``(2) obtain affirmatively expressed consent electronically 
     or in writing.
       ``(d) Exceptions.--Nothing in this section shall be 
     construed to--
       ``(1) prohibit any use of social security numbers permitted 
     or required under section 205(c)(2), 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;
       ``(2) modify, limit, or supersede the operation of, or the 
     conduct of any activity permitted under, the Fair Credit 
     Reporting Act

[[Page S3947]]

     (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) or title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley 
     Act (15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.);
       ``(3) except as set forth in subsection (b), prohibit or 
     limit the use of a social security number to retrieve 
     information about an individual without displaying such 
     number to the public;
       ``(4) prohibit or limit the use of the social security 
     number for purposes of law enforcement, including 
     investigation of fraud; or
       ``(5) prohibit or limit the use of a social security number 
     obtained from a public record or document lawfully acquired 
     from a governmental agency.
       ``(e) Civil Action in United States District Court; 
     Damages; Attorneys Fees and Costs; Regulatory Coordination.--
       ``(1) In general.--Any individual aggrieved by any act of 
     any person in violation of this section may bring a civil 
     action in a United States district court to recover--
       ``(A) such preliminary and equitable relief as the court 
     determines to be appropriate; and
       ``(B) the greater of--
       ``(i) actual damages;
       ``(ii) liquidated damages of $2,500; or
       ``(iii) in the case of a violation that was willful and 
     resulted in profit or monetary gain, liquidated damages of 
     $10,000.
       ``(2) Attorney's fees and costs.--In the case of a civil 
     action brought under paragraph (1)(B)(iii) in which the 
     aggrieved individual has substantially prevailed, the court 
     may assess against the respondent a reasonable attorney's fee 
     and other litigation costs and expenses (including expert 
     fees) reasonably incurred.
       ``(3) Statute of limitations.--No action may be commenced 
     under this subsection more than 3 years after the date on 
     which the violation was or should reasonably have been 
     discovered by the aggrieved individual.
       ``(4) Nonexclusive remedy.--The remedy provided under this 
     subsection shall be in addition to any other lawful remedy 
     available to the individual.
       ``(f) Civil Money Penalties.--
       ``(1) In general.--Any person who the Commissioner of 
     Social Security determines has violated this section shall be 
     subject, in addition to any other penalties that may be 
     prescribed by law, to--
       ``(A) a civil money penalty of not more than $5,000 for 
     each such violation, and
       ``(B) a civil money penalty of not more than $50,000, if 
     violations have occurred with such frequency as to constitute 
     a general business practice.
       ``(2) Determination of violations.--Any willful violation 
     committed contemporaneously with respect to the social 
     security numbers of 2 or more individuals by means of mail, 
     telecommunication, or otherwise shall be treated as a 
     separate violation with respect to each such individual.
       ``(3) Enforcement procedures.--The provisions of section 
     1128A (other than subsections (a), (b), (f), (h), (i), (j), 
     and (m), and the first sentence of subsection (c)) and the 
     provisions of subsections (d) and (e) of section 205 shall 
     apply to civil money penalties under this subsection in the 
     same manner as such provisions apply to a penalty or 
     proceeding under section 1128A(a), except that, for purposes 
     of this paragraph, any reference in section 1128A to the 
     Secretary shall be deemed a reference to the Commissioner of 
     Social Security.
       ``(4) Coordination with criminal enforcement.--The 
     Commissioner of Social Security shall take such actions as 
     are necessary and appropriate to assure proper coordination 
     of the enforcement of the provisions of this section with 
     criminal enforcement under section 1028 of title 18, United 
     States Code (relating to fraud and related activity in 
     connection with identification documents). The Commissioner 
     shall enter into cooperative arrangements with the Federal 
     Trade Commission under section 5 of the Identity Theft and 
     Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 (18 U.S.C. 1028 note) for 
     purposes of achieving such coordination.
       ``(g) Limitation On Regulation by States.--No requirement 
     or prohibition may be imposed under the laws of any State 
     with respect to any subject matter regulated under 
     subsections (a) through (d).
       ``(h) Definitions.--In this section, the term `display to 
     the general public' means the intentional placing of an 
     individual's social security number, or identifying portion 
     thereof, in a viewable manner on a web site that is available 
     to the general public or in material made available or sold 
     to the general public.''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) 
     applies with respect to violations occurring on and after the 
     date which is 2 years after the date of enactment of this 
     Act.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. KERREY (for himself and Mr. Hatch):
  S. 2555. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude 
from gross income of individual taxpayers discharges of indebtedness 
attributable to certain forgiven residential mortgage obligations; to 
the Committee on Finance.


                mortgage cancellation relief act of 2000

  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to 
correct an inequity in the tax code which can hurt homeowners who sell 
their homes at a loss. I am delighted to be joined by Senator Hatch in 
introducing this legislation.
  We all know someone who, for whatever reason, has wound up selling 
their home at a loss. In these situations, where the value of a home is 
less than the outstanding loan on that home, a mortgage lender will 
sometimes forgive all or part of the outstanding mortgage balance. 
Under current law, the amount forgiven is counted as taxable income to 
the seller.
  This doesn't make any sense, particularly since gains on a principal 
residence are tax exempt up to $500,000. The legislation we are 
introducing today will fix this problem by exempting taxpayers from 
including in ordinary income mortgage amounts forgiven by the lender on 
a principal residence, provided the proceeds of the home sale won't 
satisfy the qualified outstanding mortgage.
  The legislation we are introducing today is targeted to protect 
against any abuse and we expect the cost to be very low over a 10-year 
period. I urge my colleagues to join us in cosponsoring this 
legislation.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I stand before the Senate today to urge my 
colleagues to support a bill, the Mortgage Cancellation Act of 2000, 
that I am introducing along with Senator Kerrey. This bill would fix a 
flaw in the tax code that unfairly harms homeowners who sell their home 
at a loss.
  Often, homeowners who must sell their home at a loss are able to 
negotiate with their mortgage lender to forgive all or part of the 
mortgage balance that exceeds the selling price. However, under current 
tax law, the amount forgiven is taxable income to the seller.
  For example, suppose a young family purchased their home for $150,000 
with a $130,000 mortgage, $120,000 of which is still outstanding. Let 
us also assume that there is an economic downturn that has both 
decreased the value of the house to $110,000 and put this family in 
financial distress because the primary wage earner has lost his or her 
job. Because the family is no longer able to meet their mortgage 
payments, they are forced to sell their home for $110,000, $10,000 
below the value of the mortgage, with the condition that the lender 
will forgive this difference. Unfortunately, under current tax law, 
this family will have to recognize this $10,000 difference as taxable 
income at a time when they can least afford it. This is true even 
though the family suffered a $40,000 loss on the sale.
  Mr. President, I find this predicament both ironic and unfair. If 
this same family, under much better circumstances, was able to sell 
their house for $200,000 instead of $110,000, then they would owe 
nothing in tax on the gain under current tax law because gains on a 
principal residence are tax exempt up to $500,000. I believe that this 
discrepancy creates a tax inequity that begs for relief.
  Finally, I want to stress that now is the time to address the 
inequity, while the economy is healthy, instead of waiting for the next 
recession, when this problem will be much more common. Luckily, the 
problem addressed by this bill is not widespread in our country right 
now. However, a few years ago, many families in my home state of Utah 
suffered losses on the necessary sale of their homes, and had to pay 
taxes on the canceled mortgage debt. Families in other areas of our 
nation experienced similar problems.
  So, Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to join with Senator Kerrey 
and me in support of this bill.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. MACK (for himself and Mr. Breaux):
  S. 2556. A bill to make technical amendments to the Medicare, 
Medicaid, and SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 regarding 
the implementation of the per diem prospective payment system for 
psychiatric hospitals; to the Committee on Finance.


legislation making technical amendments to the Medicare, Medicaid, and 
              SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999

 Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy 
of the legislation I am introducing today with my colleague, Senator 
Breaux, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2556

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

[[Page S3948]]

     SECTION 1. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS TO THE BBRA.

       (a) Per Diem Prospective Payment System for Psychiatric 
     Hospitals.--Section 124 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP 
     Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 (113 Stat. 1501A-332), 
     as enacted into law by section 1000(a)(6) of Public Law 106-
     113, is amended--
       (1) in subsection (b), by striking ``October 1, 2001'' and 
     inserting ``October 1, 2000''; and
       (2) in subsection (c), by striking ``October 1, 2002'' and 
     inserting ``October 1, 2001''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) 
     shall take effect as if included in the enactment of section 
     124 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Balanced Budget 
     Refinement Act of 1999 (113 Stat. 1501A-332), as enacted into 
     law by section 1000(a)(6) of Public Law 106-113.

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