[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 21, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5774-H5776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STRENGTHENING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECURE MAIL
INITIATIVE ACT
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 4712) to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security
to provide for an option under the Secure Mail Initiative under which a
person to whom a document is sent under that initiative may require
that the United States Postal Service obtain a signature from that
person in order to deliver the document, and for other purposes, as
amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4712
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 the ``Strengthening the Department
of Homeland Security Secure Mail Initiative Act''.
SEC. 2. OPTION FOR SIGNATURE REQUIREMENT UNDER THE SECURE
MAIL INITIATIVE.
(a) In General.--Beginning not later than one year after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall provide for an option under the
Secure Mail Initiative (or any successor program) under which
a person to whom a document is sent under that initiative may
require that the United States Postal Service obtain a
signature from that person in order to deliver the document.
(b) Fee.--The Secretary shall require the payment of a fee
from a person requiring a signature under subsection (a).
Such fee may be set at a level that will ensure recovery of
the full costs of providing all such services. Such fee may
also be set at a level that will recover any additional costs
associated with the administration of the fees collected.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to
Congress a report which includes--
(1) the implementation of the requirements under section 2;
(2) the fee imposed under section 2(b); and
(3) the number of times during the previous year that a
person required a signature under section 2(a).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Bishop) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
General Leave
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 4712, currently under
consideration.
[[Page H5775]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 4712, the Strengthening the Department of
Homeland Security Secure Mail Initiative Act of 2016.
The bill is short, but it will have a great impact in the lives of
many aliens seeking to play by the rules and legally live and work in
the United States.
H.R. 4712 directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to allow
immigration benefits recipients to elect to pay a fee and have their
immigration documents sent to them via U.S. mail, signature required.
Currently, immigration documents are delivered via priority mail
through the U.S. Postal Service. And while delivery can be monitored
through use of a tracking number, there are numerous incidents of
individuals not, in fact, receiving the documents that the U.S. Postal
Service notes as delivered.
One obvious concern in such a case is that the document was
intercepted by an unscrupulous individual who will fraudulently use it.
Another concern is the cost and time it takes for the individual to
reapply for the document, which, at this point, is the only recourse if
a document has gone missing.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman discussed
this problem in its FY16 report, noting that delays in receipt of
immigration documents can adversely affect the ability of aliens to
work or prove lawful immigration status.
H.R. 4712 imposes no cost to the United States taxpayer, since if an
alien elects for their document to be delivered via signature required,
the immigrant must first pay a fee set by USCIS that covers the cost of
such delivery, as well as any administrative costs for the agency.
H.R. 4712 is a needed antifraud and good government measure.
I urge my colleagues to support it.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I am pleased to support H.R. 4712, a narrow and commonsense measure
that requires U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to provide an
option for green cards and employment authorization documents to be
delivered via U.S. mail with a signature confirmation.
I congratulate and thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier)
for offering this important legislation.
{time} 1945
Each year, the USCIS sends millions of secure documents to applicants
through the U.S. Postal Service, including green cards, employment
authorization documents, and travel documents. Currently, the delivery
status of these documents is monitored solely through tracking numbers.
While we know when a document is delivered to the address on file, we
have no way of knowing if the immigration applicant actually received
the document; and if we don't know if the secure documents reach the
intended recipient, we also don't know if they have fallen into the
wrong--possibly criminal--hands. Although specific data is not
available, conservative estimates indicate that, every year, thousands
of documents--perhaps tens of thousands--are lost in the mail or, worse
yet, are stolen.
According to USCIS policy, if the U.S. Postal Service does not return
a document or a notice and if there has been no change of address, the
USCIS will consider the document as having been properly delivered, and
the applicant must refile and again pay the filing fee in order to
obtain a replacement document. For green cards, the fee is $450 even if
the failure to receive the document was no fault of the individual's.
This is not only unfair to the immigration applicant, but a lost or a
stolen document also raises national security, identity theft, and
other fraud concerns.
Today's bill makes just one simple but important change in that it
requires the USCIS to allow immigration applicants to elect to pay a
fee and have their documents mailed with an added level of security by
requiring a signature from the person who accepts delivery. The cost
will be borne by the applicant; so immigrants can be assured that the
document won't be delivered without there being a signature from the
recipient.
I urge the USCIS to consider other options to address these basic
mailing issues, such as holding documents at USCIS facilities for
direct pickup by the applicant. But, for today, I am pleased that we
have agreement on this bill, which will help ameliorate document
mailing and receipt problems and will strengthen the security and
reliability of the immigration document delivery.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Speier), the author of the legislation.
Ms. SPEIER. I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for giving me the
opportunity to speak about this bill.
Mr. Speaker, every once in a while, we get complaints, questions from
constituents, and we actually can try and fix them. This is one of
those situations.
For the longest time, I was getting complaints from residents in my
district who had not received their immigration documentation. For the
most part, I was not able to tell them that we could do anything,
because we would call the Postal Service, and they would say there was
really nothing we could do for them. I realized this was a serious
problem.
There are some 50,000 green cards every year that go temporarily
displaced or permanently displaced due to loss in delivery. That is
about 5 percent of all green cards. With 50,000 green cards over 435
districts, you can see that we are talking about 10, 15, 20 complaints
that we get every year. In my case, frankly, we stopped even logging
them in because there was nothing that we could do about them. This
idea came to be, and I thought why not try it. I am really very
grateful that we are taking it up today.
My most recent constituent with this problem is from San Francisco.
He has gone through the lawful process of getting his green card, only
to have it lost. It has been over a year that he has been waiting for
this document now. That means he can't travel, that he can't change
jobs, that he can't get financial aid for college, that he can't open a
retirement account, that he can't buy a house or anything else that
most of us take for granted. This case shows that, when these documents
are not properly delivered, the only solution is to reapply and pay
another $425. It is a small fix, but it carries a big wallop. That is
why I am so grateful that we are taking it up.
The other issue is one of identity theft. You can also see how it
could be used in a way that could create a national security risk. A
stolen card could be used to travel or to purchase a firearm. We could
easily fix this problem, as my colleagues have noted, by giving the
applicant the option of paying an additional $3 to require a signature
at the time it is delivered.
I thank the committee, and especially my colleague Representative
Woodall from Georgia, for joining me in this effort. I urge my
colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall).
Mr. WOODALL. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding me the
time, and I appreciate the leadership of the gentlewoman from
California.
Mr. Speaker, I stuck around tonight because we are doing two of my
favorite things in this institution. We are taking ideas that came from
constituents with problems who trusted us enough to bring us those
problems. We are putting those things into action, and we are doing it
not with a lot of shouting and not with a lot of pomp and circumstance.
We are doing it just the way the process was supposed to work by which
the gentlewoman from California crafts an idea, and she goes out and
she solicits cosponsors, and the team on the Judiciary Committee works
it through the process. Then it comes down here to the House floor, Mr.
Speaker, where it is going to make real differences for real people.
Imagine you have done everything the right way--you have stood in
line; you have played by the rules. You have done everything the way
citizen and
[[Page H5776]]
American law has asked you to do it. Finally, your green card is ready
to be delivered, and you are waiting at the post office for it to
come--right there by the mailbox, waiting for it to come. You check
online. Online, it says it was delivered yesterday, but you don't have
it. You call your Congressman for help, and your Congressman says,
``There is nothing we can do,'' and there hasn't been until this Speier
legislation today.
For the first time, we give constituents who have played by the rules
an opportunity to pay, at their expense, in order to guarantee that
this document that will allow them to work, that will allow them to
feed their families, that will allow them to pursue that American Dream
is going to end up in their hands. Golly, it sounds small when you read
the legislation, but if you are that family, Mr. Speaker, there is
nothing bigger in your life.
I am grateful for the partnership of all of my colleagues who made
this possible tonight.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
In closing, let me again congratulate Congresswoman Speier and
Congressman Woodall. I am equally grateful when we have the opportunity
to work together. I see this as an opportunity on many, many issues.
For example, this legislation, albeit simple in context, has a broad
influence and impact. It means that anyone who is intending to do harm
by either having stolen mail or by having taken a document that does
not belong to them now can be thwarted. In this climate in which we
must be particularly sensitive in protecting the Nation against
terrorism, domestic terrorism, people misusing documents, or identity
theft, this is a very important contribution to thwarting that effort.
As has been indicated, it gives individuals who work very hard and who
desire the American Dream the opportunity to be documented.
I think it fits very well in what I hope will be an ongoing
commitment to improving the immigration system to the extent of passing
comprehensive immigration reform, because it does recognize that there
are people who are desiring to do good who come to this country.
For that reason, I ask my colleagues to support this important
contribution to those who work hard, who choose to support the values
of this Nation, and who work hard as new immigrants and as potential
citizens of this Nation. I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 4712.
I also thank the Judiciary Committee for its work on this
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bishop) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 4712, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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