[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 133 (Thursday, October 10, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10379-S10380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 3100. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to limit the 
misuse of social security numbers, to establish criminal penalties for 
such misuse, and for other purposes.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise to strongly speak in favor of the 
legislation introduced today by Senators Feinstein and Gregg titled 
``The Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act of 2002,'' indeed, I 
am an original cosponsor of this legislation. If enacted, this bill 
will reduce the misuse of individuals' Social Security numbers, SSNs, 
by others.
  As you well know, the Social Security number is increasingly being 
used for purposes not related to the administration of the Social 
Security program, because it is, in many cases, our national 
identification number. As a result, many people can gain access to the 
number, and this facilitates its use as a tool for illegal activity, 
most significantly for the crime of identity theft. In a report issued 
by the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector 
General, OIG, in May 1999, investigators concluded that most identity-
related crimes involved the fraudulent use of a Social Security number. 
Additionally, the introduction of the SSN into the arena of electronic 
commerce has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in SSN misuse.
  Given the upward trend in SSN misuse, I feel that the Congress must 
take a fresh look at options for safeguarding Social Security numbers. 
I believe that the bill introduced by Senators Feinstein, Gregg and 
myself today is an important development in that effort. However, I 
want to make it clear that this bill will not eliminate all misuse of 
Social Security numbers. There are many legitimate and necessary uses 
of Social Security numbers and this bill does not prohibit such uses. 
Unfortunately, the absence of such prohibitions makes it easier for 
those who seek to misuse Social Security numbers.
  The legislation being introduced today is very similar to a bill, S. 
848, that was introduced by Senators Feinstein and Gregg during the 
first session of the 107th Congress. Although S. 848 was referred to 
the Judiciary Committee, the bill deals extensively with sections of 
the US Code concerning Social Security numbers, legislative changes to 
these sections are in the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee. 
Therefore, Senator Grassley and I expressed our concern that S. 848 
should have been referred to the Finance Committee and we initiated a 
successful unanimous consent request, with the support of Senators 
Leahy, Hatch, Feinstein, and Gregg, to sequentially refer the bill to 
the Finance Committee. The Judiciary Committee favorably reported the 
bill on May 16th of this year and it was immediately referred to the 
Finance Committee.
  We at the Finance Committee examined the problems which this 
legislation tries to address and found potential solutions to these 
problems to be very complex. In addition, as the legislation could 
potentially affect all of the uses and availabilities of SSNs many 
interested parties contacted the Finance Committee to express their 
views.
  Given the complexity of the issues and the large number of 
stakeholders involved, the Finance Committee decided to schedule a 
subcommittee hearing in advance of a mark-up in order to better inform 
Committee members and their staffs about these issues. Special 
attention was focused on the core set of solutions embodied in the bill 
reported by the Judiciary Committee. After a long series of 
discussions, we reached agreement with Senator Feinstein on legislation 
which makes a number of changes to the reported version of S. 848. We 
then scheduled a mark-up of this substitute for S. 848, but were unable 
to proceed with the mark-up because some members of the Committee 
planned to offer amendments that were extraneous and controversial. As 
a result, in order to move this legislation forward expeditiously, I 
asked Senators Feinstein and Gregg to introduce the substitute for S. 
848 as new legislation with me as an original cosponsor. Moreover, I 
intend to use procedures in Rule XIV of the Senate to have it placed on 
the calendar, rather than have it referred to Committee. Once on the 
calendar, the bill is eligible to be brought up for debate on the 
Senate floor.

       As reported by the Judiciary Committee, S. 848 would: 
     Prohibit the sale, purchase, or display of a Social Security 
     number to the general public without the individual's 
     consent, with exceptions for legitimate business and 
     government activity; prohibit the release of certain key 
     public records to the general public unless Social Security 
     numbers are first redacted, this provision applies only to 
     records created after the bill is enacted; require Social 
     Security numbers to be removed from government checks, 
     drivers' licenses, and motor vehicle registrations; prohibit 
     the employment of prisoners in any capacity that would give 
     them access to Social Security numbers; make it a crime to 
     obtain an SSN for the purpose of locating or identifying a 
     person with the intent to physically harm that person; give 
     consumers the right to refuse to give out their Social 
     Security numbers when purchasing a good or service from a 
     commercial entity, unless the entity has a legitimate need as 
     specified in the law; and create new civil monetary 
     penalties, criminal penalties, and civil actions to help 
     prevent misuse of Social Security numbers; requires all new 
     credit card payment processing machines to truncate the 
     credit card account numbers to the last five digits on the 
     printed receipt.
       The substitute for S. 848 that is being introduced today 
     retains the basic structure and objectives of the Judiciary 
     Committee-reported bill, but makes several substantive 
     changes that improve the bill. The substitute bill: makes 
     clear that it is permissible to sell, purchase or display 
     Social Security numbers for any legitimate use required, 
     authorized or excepted by any Federal law. Stops new public 
     records containing Social Security numbers from being posted 
     on the Internet and calls for a study by the General 
     Accounting Office of issues pertaining to the display of 
     Social Security numbers on any public records. Permits State 
     Attorneys General to enforce the new ``right to refuse'' to 
     provide a Social Security number, but prohibits class action 
     lawsuits to enforce this new ``right.'' Sunsets the ``right 
     to refuse'' after six years, and calls for a report by the 
     Attorney General, six months after the sunset regarding the 
     effectiveness of this ``right to refuse'' and whether it 
     should be reauthorized.

  To conclude, I think that the introduction of this revised version of 
S. 848 and the placement of it on the calendar are two very important 
steps in our fight to reduce the misuse of Social Security numbers and 
reduce the theft of

[[Page S10380]]

identities. I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact this 
important piece of legislation.
                                 ______