[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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