[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 132 (Thursday, October 19, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER CONFIDENTIALITY ACT OF 1999

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                               speech of

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 17, 2000

  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support HR 3218, the Social 
Security Number Confidentiality Act. This bill takes a step toward 
protecting the integrity and security of the Social Security number by 
ensuring that window envelopes used by the Federal Government do not 
display an individual's Social Security number. HR 3218 will help 
protect millions of Americans from the devastating crime of identity 
theft, which is a growing problem in my district and throughout the 
country.
  This bill will be partially helpful to senior citizens who rely on 
Social Security. These seniors could lose a lifetime's worth of savings 
if a criminal obtained their Social Security number. We owe it to 
America's senior citizens to make sure that they are not exposed to the 
risk of identity theft as a price of receiving their Social Security 
benefits.
  While this bill does represent a good step toward protecting privacy, 
I would remind my colleagues that much more needs to be done to ensure 
the Social Security number is not used as means of facilitating 
identity crimes. The increasing prevalence of identity theft is 
directly related to the use of the Social Security number as a uniform 
identifier.
  For all intents and purposes, the Social Security number is already a 
national identification number. Today, in the majority of states, no 
American can get a job, open a bank account, get a drivers' license, or 
receive a birth certificate for one's child without presenting their 
Social Security number. So widespread has the use of the Social 
Security number become that a member of my staff had to produce a 
Social Security number in order to get a fishing license!
  Unscrupulous people have found ways to exploit this system and steal 
another's identity--the ubiquity of the Social Security number paved 
the way for these very predictable abuses and crimes. Congress must 
undo the tremendous injury done to the people's privacy and security by 
the federal government's various mandates which transformed the Social 
Security number into a universal identifier.
  In order to stop the disturbing trend toward the use of the Social 
Security number as a uniform ID I have introduced the Freedom and 
Privacy Restoration Act (HR 220), which forbids the use of the Social 
Security number for purposes not related to Social Security. The 
Freedom and Privacy Restoration Act also contains a blanket prohibition 
on the use of identifiers to ``investigate, monitor, oversee, or 
otherwise regulate'' American citizens. Mr. Speaker, prohibiting the 
Federal Government from using standard identifiers will help protect 
Americans from both private and public sector criminals.
  While much of the discussion of identity theft and related threats to 
privacy has concerned private sector criminals, the major threat to 
privacy lies in the power uniform identifiers give to government 
officials. I am sure I need not remind my colleagues of the sad history 
of government officials of both parties using personal information 
contained in IRS or FBI files against their political enemies, or of 
the cases of government officials rummaging through the confidential 
files of celebrities and/or their personal acquaintances, or of the 
Medicare clerk who sold confidential data about Medicare patients to a 
Health Maintenance Organization. After considering these cases, one 
cannot help but shudder at the potential for abuse if an unscrupulous 
government official is able to access one's complete medical, credit, 
and employment history by simply typing the citizens' ``uniform 
identifier'' into a database.
  In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I enthusiastically join in supporting 
HR 3218 which will help protect millions of senior citizens and other 
Americans from identity theft by strengthening the confidentiality of 
the Social Security number. I also urge my colleagues to protect all 
Americans from the threat of national identifiers by supporting my 
Freedom and Privacy Restoration Act.

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