[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 145 (Monday, September 26, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5883-H5885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SOCIAL SECURITY FRAUD PREVENTION ACT OF 2016

  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3779) to restrict the inclusion of Social Security account 
numbers on documents sent by mail by the Federal Government, and for 
other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3779

       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 ``Social Security Fraud 
     Prevention Act of 2016''.

     SEC. 2. RESTRICTION OF SSNS ON DOCUMENTS SENT BY MAIL.

       (a) In General.--No department or agency of the Federal 
     Government may include the social security account number of 
     any individual on any document sent by mail unless the head 
     of such department or agency determines that the inclusion of 
     such social security number on such document is necessary.
       (b) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the head of each department and 
     agency of the Federal Government shall issue regulations 
     specifying the circumstances under which inclusion of a 
     social security account number on a document sent by mail is 
     necessary. Such regulations shall include--
       (1) instructions for the partial redaction of social 
     security account numbers whenever feasible; and
       (2) a requirement that social security account numbers not 
     be visible on the outside of any package sent by mail.
       (c) Effective Date.--This Act shall apply with respect to 
     documents sent by mail on or after the date that is 1 year 
     after the date of the enactment of this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah.


                             GENERAL LEAVE

  Mr. CHAFFETZ. 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 the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3779, Social Security 
Fraud Prevention Act of 2016. This was introduced by the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Valadao).
  Social Security numbers were first created for the sole purpose of 
allowing the Federal Government to track the earnings history of 
individuals to determine Social Security benefits. However, over the 
course of time, both the Federal Government and the private sector 
found these numbers to be valuable tools to keep track of individuals 
for a wide variety of reasons, including tax reporting and credit 
history. You can name how many different things where they require your 
Social Security number in order to figure out and identify who you are.

                              {time}  1530

  Because of these changes, Social Security numbers have become 
incredibly important in today's high-tech society. In fact, they can be 
used for a good deal of purposes in a positive way, but they can also 
be used in a nefarious way to try to create a fictitious identification 
for somebody.
  They are necessary for applying to college, getting a credit card, or 
opening a bank account. However, in the hands of the wrong people, 
Social Security numbers can lead to identity theft, something that is 
very destructive to those affected.
  Troublingly, the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Valadao, reported an 
interaction with one of his constituents who received a government 
document with a Social Security number printed on the outside of the 
envelope. It was on the outside of the envelope.
  Mr. Speaker, this is totally and completely unacceptable. Given the 
dangers associated with identity theft, the Federal Government must do 
more to safeguard Social Security numbers.
  Indeed, 2 weeks ago, my committee released a 231-page report 
detailing the majority staff's investigative findings concerning a data 
breach of personally identifiable information by the United States 
Office of Personnel Management.
  Mr. Speaker, this information included the Social Security numbers of 
more than 20 million Americans. As a result, an Oversight and 
Government Reform Committee report recommended Federal agencies reduce 
the use of Social Security numbers in order to mitigate the risk of 
identity theft.
  What the bill does that Mr. Valadao has introduced, H.R. 3779, is 
bring us closer to this goal by requiring Federal agencies to limit the 
sending of Social Security numbers via mail and to completely ban 
sending Social Security numbers in a way in which they can be seen on 
the outside of any package.
  Ultimately, this bill will protect Americans from having their Social 
Security numbers needlessly revealed by the Federal Government.

[[Page H5884]]

  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan piece of 
legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3779, the Social 
Security Fraud Prevention Act of 2016, as amended.
  As my colleague, the gentleman from Utah, has noted, this bipartisan 
legislation has been introduced by Representative David Valadao and 
cosponsored by Mr. Swalwell, both from California.
  This bill would strengthen efforts to prevent identity theft. In 
particular, it would prohibit Federal agencies from including the 
Social Security number of any individual on documents sent in the U.S. 
mail, unless an agency head determines that it is absolutely necessary 
to do so.
  Also, through regulations, agencies would, in the future, specify the 
precise circumstances under which they would need to include Social 
Security numbers in printed and mailed documents inside the envelope.
  This bill would also require agencies to partially redact Social 
Security numbers, where feasible, and restrict the visibility of Social 
Security numbers on the outside of any package sent by mail.
  As reported by the Department of Justice, nearly 18 million Americans 
are victims of identity theft per year. According to the 2016 Identity 
Fraud Study conducted by the Javelin Strategy & Research firm, identity 
theft has resulted in losses exceeding $112 billion over the last 6 
years alone. That amounts to $35,600 stolen per minute over the last 6 
years.
  The Javelin study also indicates that, as the U.S. continues to 
convert to chip-enabled credit card technology, identity thieves have 
become increasingly reliant on the creation of fraudulent customer 
accounts. This illicit practice is greatly enabled by the accessibility 
and exposure of Social Security numbers.
  Moreover, the announcement last week by Yahoo that the account 
information of at least 500 million users had been stolen by hackers 
back in 2014 is the latest example of the massive data breaches that we 
are continuing to experience in both the private and public sectors.
  In light of the complexity and frequency of these cyber attacks, it 
is imperative that we take commonsense steps at the Federal level to 
protect personally identifiable information, including Social Security 
numbers, against misuse.
  During our committee's investigation, as the chairman of the 
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the gentleman from Utah, has 
noted, of the critical breaches of information technology systems at 
the Office of Personnel Management in 2015, we discovered that the 
agency had not encrypted the Social Security numbers of over 20 million 
employees. We are similarly behind the curve when it comes to 
safeguarding Social Security information sent by Federal agencies in 
the mail.
  Mr. Speaker, the Social Security Fraud Prevention Act is a practical 
piece of legislation that enjoys support on both sides of the aisle. It 
has also received strong endorsements from organizations such as the 
American Association of Retired Persons, or AARP, and the National 
Retiree Legislative Network.
  Publicly, I want to thank Mr. Valadao and Mr. Swalwell for their 
leadership in this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), of the 13th Congressional 
District.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to 
agree with my colleagues and recognize our colleague from California 
(Mr. Valadao), for being the sponsor of this piece of legislation, 
which obviously enjoys bipartisan support. I am a cosponsor of this 
bill.
  According to the Justice Department, identity theft affects nearly 18 
million people, costing more than $15 billion in 2014 alone. This 
represents roughly 7 percent of all Americans age 16 or older. In 
Illinois alone, in 2014, it has been recognized that the FTC saw a 65 
percent increase in identity theft.
  Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics also shows us that women 
are more likely to be victims of identity theft than men. In addition, 
more than 14 percent of the victims are elderly.
  We all know that Social Security numbers are the link to a key piece 
of information that criminals use to steal people's identities. So this 
legislation takes an important step to ensure that our Federal 
agencies, our government, funded by the hardworking taxpayers of this 
country, are not making this problem even worse.
  This is a commonsense step. This is a commonsense piece of 
legislation that many out there watching may look to us and say: Do you 
mean this isn't already the law? Do you mean we are still allowing 
agencies to send Social Security numbers?
  We should have known this long ago. We should have stopped this long 
ago. But it is commonsense colleagues like Congressman Valadao and 
Congressman Swalwell, those fellow cosponsors, in a bipartisan way, 
Republicans and Democrats, who said: You know what? Let's solve 
this problem that should have been solved long ago. But now, we are 
going to get to it because of the leadership from Congressman Valadao.

  I am proud to cosponsor this legislation, which will have a real 
impact on reducing identity theft in this country. I want to commend 
each and every one of our colleagues who are supporting this measure.
  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, I know that the gentleman from California, the lead 
sponsor of this bill, has just arrived, and I want to publicly thank 
him, as well as the gentleman from Illinois who just spoke. I 
appreciate his leadership. He joined with Mr. Swalwell on our side of 
the aisle. And I agree, this is a long time coming. It should have been 
done years ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao), the prime sponsor of this 
bill.
  Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 
3779, the Social Security Fraud Prevention Act.
  This commonsense piece of legislation will help mitigate rising 
instances of identity theft, which have become a significant problem 
across our country. What is worse, these crimes tend to affect the 
populations that need protection the most, including the elderly, 
children, and veterans.
  Recovering from having your identity being stolen is a burdensome and 
expensive process. One way to reduce occurrences of this crime is to 
prevent the Federal Government from mailing documents that contain the 
full Social Security number of an American citizen, unless it is 
absolutely necessary.
  I realized the need for this legislation after I was approached by a 
constituent in my district who showed me a letter she received from the 
Social Security Administration that had her full Social Security number 
printed on it, as well as her full name and address.
  Upon further investigation, we found that the Social Security 
Administration was also printing full Social Security numbers visible 
on the outside of postcards. This is simply unacceptable.
  Social Security was established to provide older Americans financial 
security during their retirement years, not jeopardize their security 
by handling someone's personal information poorly. Even more concerning 
is that the problem is not exclusive to the Social Security 
Administration but has become a government-wide problem.
  My bill, H.R. 3779, would prevent the Federal Government from mailing 
documents that contain full Social Security numbers, unless absolutely 
necessary, and require the Federal agencies to partially redact Social 
Security numbers on documents, whenever possible. Additionally, the 
bill prevents Social Security numbers from ever being visible on the 
outside of a piece of mail.
  Please join me in supporting this commonsense piece of legislation 
that will help Americans avoid falling victim to one of the fastest 
growing crimes in the United States.

[[Page H5885]]

  

  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  I want to thank and congratulate Mr. Valadao and others who have 
worked on this bill. It is a commonsense piece of legislation. I urge 
its adoption.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, I was privileged to 
introduce H.R. 3779, the Social Security Fraud Prevention Act, with my 
friend from California, Congressman Valadao.
  Identity theft is a major and growing problem in our nation. Almost 
18 million Americans were victims of this crime in 2014, according to 
the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Of those who lost money as a result 
of their victimization, the average loss was over $1,300.
  This is a serious, complicated problem from which no one is immune. 
As in most complex issues, there is not just one solution. We must 
attack it from a variety of angles.
  For example, the government certainly shouldn't be making identity 
theft more likely by making it easier for criminals to get people's 
Social Security Numbers. Puffing aside the merits, the reality is that 
Social Security Numbers right now are used in many ways to identify 
people and secure accounts. Having someone's Social Security Number 
thus can be very helpful in stealing someone's identity.
  H.R. 3779 would make it more difficult to steal someone's Social 
Security Number by prohibiting any federal agency or department from 
including it on documents sent by mail unless it is determined to be 
necessary. And, when it is included it would not be visible from the 
outside of the envelope and would be partially redacted when possible.
  This is a common sense, bipartisan bill that is one piece of a larger 
comprehensive effort we need to successfully combat identity theft. I 
thank Congressman Valadao for sponsoring it and working on it with me.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3779.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 3779, 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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