[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3369-H3370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REQUIRING SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TO ESTABLISH A PROGRAM FOR THE
ISSUANCE OF IDENTITY PROTECTION PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 5437) to require the Secretary of the Treasury to establish
a program for the issuance of identity protection personal
identification numbers, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5437
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. IDENTITY PROTECTION PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION
NUMBERS.
Not later than 5 years after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury or the Secretary's
delegate (hereafter referred to in this section as the
``Secretary'') shall establish a program to issue, upon the
request of any individual, a number which may be used in
connection with such individual's social security number (or
other identifying information with respect to such individual
as determined by the Secretary) to assist the Secretary in
verifying such individual's identity.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen) and the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms.
DelBene) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
General Leave
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H.R. 5437, currently under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Minnesota?
There was no objection.
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5437, legislation that I am
coauthoring with my colleague, Congresswoman DelBene from Washington
State, that will tackle identity theft.
Each year the IRS processes over 240 million tax returns and issues
more than $400 billion in refunds. This makes tax season a prime target
for identity thieves who steal billions of dollars from hardworking
taxpayers by filing false returns. It is all too common.
More than 1.8 million people, including more than 13,000 Minnesotans
were victims of tax identify theft in 2015, and in just the first 2
months of 2016, the filing season, the IRS identified more than 31,000
fraudulent returns with thousands more surely slipping through the
cracks.
A Government Accountability Office report last year found that
scammers attempted to claim $14.5 billion in fraudulent tax returns in
the 2015 tax season alone. For a criminal, the scam is simple and
straightforward. You steal a taxpayer's Social Security number; you
file a fraudulent return in their name; and then you collect the
refund.
While this is a tremendous theft of taxpayer dollars, it is also a
nightmare for victims who then have to work to clear their name with
multiple government agencies and wait longer to receive their own tax
refund.
Our seniors, in particular, are very vulnerable to identity theft, as
they then have to struggle to navigate a bureaucratic maze to clear
their name and then file an authentic return. There is one tool
available though to some taxpayers that makes this scam a lot harder to
pull this off. It is called an identity protection PIN, or an IP PIN.
It is a 6-digit number that is issued by the IRS to help the IRS then
authenticate a tax return and validate the identity of the person who
is filing it.
{time} 1415
Today, IP PINs are available only in a couple of States and the
District of Columbia, as well as to certain taxpayers who might be at
high risk of identity theft.
This legislation today which we are taking up would expand this
program by giving all taxpayers access and the option of signing up for
an IP PIN over the course of the next 5 years as they phase this in.
This will give all taxpayers peace of mind by allowing them to
proactively protect their own identity from tax scammers, and it will
save taxpayer dollars by preventing fraud that puts refunds into the
wrong hands.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join us in supporting this
bipartisan bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DelBENE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5437, and I want to thank my
colleague, Mr. Paulsen, for all of his work to help advance this
important measure. This is a pretty straightforward bill with a
straightforward mission: protecting taxpayers from tax identity theft
and fraud.
I am sure everyone is familiar with a scheme that some enterprising
criminals came up with to file fraudulent tax returns so that they
could collect money that didn't belong to them. I am sure it is safe to
say constituents in every one of our districts went to file their taxes
only to find that they had been filed already, and someone else had
claimed their return and their identity.
In response, the IRS instituted a smart, commonsense program to
assign PIN numbers to affected taxpayers, without which they could not
file their taxes. These six-digit numbers would be reassigned each
year, and electronic returns would not be accepted without them.
According to the American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights, it appears
that this program has helped protect taxpayers and reduce fraudulent
returns. The number of tax returns with confirmed identity theft
dropped 32 percent from 2016 to 2017, alone, and 57 percent during the
2015 to 2017 period. Yet tax identity thieves are still claiming
millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained refunds.
By broadening the IP PIN program to all taxpayers instead of only
making it available to identity theft victims and individuals in pilot
project States, we can be proactive about keeping taxpayers' personal
information and hard-earned dollars safe, and we can make further
progress in reducing the instances of fraud during filing season.
While we can and must do more to outwit cybercriminals and
perpetrators of fraud, this program is a no-brainer that gives a better
level of protection than exists today. I look forward to seeing this
instituted for all of our constituents and hope we can build on this
progress to bring additional security measures and 21st century
technology improvements to the IRS.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, again, this is a straightforward and simple
bill that will protect taxpayers across the country, and I urge my
colleagues to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, as a reminder, next year, taxpayers will enjoy a very
simplified and streamlined tax filing process that allows all
hardworking Americans to keep more of their own hard-earned dollars.
However, there is still a lot that needs to be done to help protect
taxpayers by cracking down on identity theft, which is becoming more
and more prevalent. This is a very commonsense, straightforward bill
that will help tackle identity theft.
I want to thank not only Chairman Brady for his leadership on some of
the IRS reform efforts, but also my colleague Congresswoman DelBene for
partnering up on this issue as well.
It is very common sense; it is bipartisan. By giving taxpayers who
are at risk of identity theft the opportunity to request that PIN
number, it will allow them to make sure that their tax return is safe,
secure, and authentic.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of H.R.
5437.
This bill addresses one of the most popular issues raised during our
Subcommittee's comment period.
H.R. 5437 is very simple. It would require the Treasury Secretary to
establish a program that would issue identity protection personal
identification numbers (IP PINs) to taxpayers.
An IP PIN helps prevent tax-related identity theft and tax refund
fraud. The IRS currently makes IP PINs available to a limited group of
taxpayers. If an IP PIN is not included for this group, the IRS system
will automatically reject an electronically filed tax return. It is an
additional layer of protection for these taxpayers.
[[Page H3370]]
H.R. 5437 would expand this program. This bipartisan bill would
require the IRS to make an IP PIN available to any and all taxpayers.
It does not matter where they live or work; every taxpayer will be able
to request an IP PIN.
I would like to thank our colleagues--the Gentleman from Minnesota
(Mr. Paulsen) and the Gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. DelBene) for
their good work and support of this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of our colleagues to support H.R. 5437.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 5437, 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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