[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H137-H139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MOVING AMERICANS PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 1568) to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to protect
personally identifiable information, and for other purposes, as
amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1568
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 ``Moving Americans Privacy
Protection Act''.
SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.
(a) In General.--Paragraph (2) of section 431(c) of the
Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1431(c)) is amended to read as
follows:
``(2)(A) The information listed in paragraph (1) shall not
be available for public disclosure if--
``(i) the Secretary of the Treasury makes an affirmative
finding on a shipment-by-shipment basis that disclosure is
likely to pose a threat of personal injury or property
damage; or
``(ii) the information is exempt under the provisions of
section 552(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code.
``(B) The Secretary shall ensure that any personally
identifiable information, including Social Security numbers
and passport numbers, is removed from any manifest signed,
produced, delivered, or electronically transmitted under
[[Page H138]]
this section before access to the manifest is provided to the
public.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)
shall take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Nebraska (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska.
General Leave
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Nebraska?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, the legislation before us today, the Moving Americans
Privacy Protection Act, takes an important step to protect the privacy
of all Americans, especially our veterans and servicemembers returning
from overseas. It requires Customs and Border Protection to remove
personally identifiable information from any shipping manifest before
CBP makes the manifest information available to the public.
Under current law, Customs and Border Protection is required to make
certain shipping manifest information available for public disclosure.
Unfortunately, there is no requirement to ensure these manifests do not
contain Americans' personal information. Instead, U.S. citizens
returning home from military postings or job opportunities abroad are
expected to navigate a complicated and bureaucratic system--that often
experiences significant delays, I might add--to request that any
personal information be removed from manifests to protect their
identity from fraudsters and scammers.
Our brave men and women in uniform, as well as Americans whose
employers or family commitments have required them to relocate
overseas, already face numerous hurdles when they return home. Ensuring
U.S. Customs and Border Protection proactively removes this data from
manifests is a simple, straightforward, and actually long overdue step
to protect their identities.
I applaud Representatives Michael Waltz and Bill Pascrell for their
leadership on this legislation and Senators Daines, Stabenow, and
Peters for leading this effort in the Senate. I urge my colleagues in
the House of Representatives to follow the Ways and Means Committee's
lead and unanimously pass this bipartisan legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1568, the bipartisan Moving
Americans Privacy Protection Act.
I believe that privacy is something we are going to be discussing on
this floor for the next 10 years. We are trying to catch up to the
electronics that exist in our lives, and we want to make sure that
people are all respected.
We know protecting privacy is a difficult and constantly evolving
challenge. This is especially true in our modern world. Privacy is
deeply important for all Americans, particularly our servicemembers
abroad. Unfortunately, our troops are often victims of identity theft.
For security purposes, U.S. Customs and Border Protection requires
manifest sheets to document the cargo of incoming vessels. The Moving
Americans Privacy Protection Act will ensure that personal data on
cargo manifests cannot be abused.
I am proud to co-lead this crucial and commonsense measure with the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz).
In recent years, manifest data has been mistakenly exposed, enabling
identity theft, credit card fraud, and unwanted solicitations. Our plan
will protect Americans from having their personal information
compromised.
We must make sure information like names, addresses, Social Security
numbers, and passport numbers can be removed from cargo manifests
before they are disclosed. This is a no-brainer. We are talking about
protecting people's privacy, including servicemembers and their
families serving abroad.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record two letters of support for the
Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act: the first is from the New
Jersey Warehouse and Movers Association; the second is from the
American Trucking Associations and a coalition of supportive
organizations.
New Jersey Warehouse &
Movers Association
September 11, 2023.
Hon. Bill Pascrell,
Washington, DC.
Representative Pascrell: As the leader of the New Jersey
Warehouse & Movers Association, I have the privilege of
representing moving and storage companies located across the
Garden State. Thank you for your continued leadership,
especially as a member of the US House Ways & Means
Committee.
Our members especially thank you for introducing, along
with Representative Mike Walz, the bipartisan Moving
Americans Privacy Protection Act (``MAPPA'' / HR 1568). As
you know, this legislation would help protect the privacy and
personally identifiable information (PII) of American
servicemembers, federal employees, private sector workers,
and their families who are returning to the United States
after living abroad.
With multiple defense and government installations, more
than a dozen Fortune 500 corporate headquarters, globally
recognized colleges and universities, and its status as a
center for international trade, New Jersey residents
frequently move overseas and then return to the US. This
exchange plays an important role in our state's continued
economic growth, and the moving industry is proud to support
these individuals and their families. Unfortunately, current
government policy regarding the security of their PII
unwittingly places them at risk of identity theft, financiat
fraud, and other crimes. The MAPPA would change this policy
and require US Customs to remove the PII contained in vessel
manifests from trade data that is provided to sale.
Passage of legislation accomplishing the goal of the MAPPA
has been a long-standing priority of the moving industry. We
are thankful for introducing identical legislation in the
House (HR 1568) and the Senate (S 758). The Senate passed S
758 in March 2023, making House approval the only step
necessary before the legislation goes to the White House for
the President's signature.
As such, the New Jersey moving industry asks you to contact
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal
and urge him to support the Committee, including S 758 as
passed by the Senate in the next available markup, to approve
the legislation without amendment, and for the House to
consider the legislation under suspension of the rules. We
also understand that Rep. Waltz is testifying in support of
MAPPA during the Ways and Means Committee's ``Member Day''
hearing on September 14, 2023--joint testimony in support of
the legislation or a letter of support for the legislation
submitted for the hearing's record would be appreciated as we
all work to enact this necessary and commonsense legislation.
Thank you again for your leadership on this important
issue.
May 24, 2023.
Hon. Jason Smith,
Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Adrian Smith,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Trade, Committee on Ways and Means,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Richard Neal,
Ranking Member, Committee on Ways and Means, Washington, DC.
Hon. Earl Blumenauer,
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Trade, Committee on Ways and
Means, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman J. Smith, Ranking Member Neal, Chairman A.
Smith, and Ranking Member Blumenauer: Our organizations
respectfully request Committee sign off for House
consideration--under suspension of the rules as a stand-alone
bill--the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (S. 758),
as passed by the Senate on March 9, 2023.
The legislation addresses a specific and unique issue and
helps protect the sensitive personal data of servicemembers,
federal employees, private sector workers. and families who
are returning to the United States after living abroad. S.
758 was introduced on a bipartisan basis by Senators Daines,
Peters, Stabenow, and Marshall and passed the Senate by voice
vote. It has a bipartisan House companion (H.R. 1568)
introduced by Representatives Waltz and Pascrell. The
legislation is identical to the Moving Americans Privacy
Protection Act (115th--H.R. 4403), which in 2018 the Ways &
Means Committee reported out by voice vote, followed by House
passage under the suspension calendar. The Congressional
Budget Office and Joint Tax Committee have determined a
``zero'' score for the legislation.
Each year, the U.S. military, federal departments, and
private sector organizations relocate tens of thousands of
Americans back home to the U.S. after posting overseas. Other
Americans return home after time abroad for personal reasons.
When shipping their personal household goods to the U.S.,
these individuals must include elements of Personally
Identifiable Information
[[Page H139]]
(PII) on shipping forms which are made part of vessel
manifests. The PII often contains Social Security numbers,
Passport numbers, home addresses, and other sensitive data.
Currently U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is
required to make all commercial information from vessel
manifests--often capturing the sensitive PII of returning
American citizens--available to data brokers who package and
resell this data throughout their subscriber network. Without
concrete action to protect the PII, normally held under
strict security by the U.S. Government, these elements can be
exposed, placing Americans at risk of identity theft,
financial fraud, and other abuses of their data.
The Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act helps protect
Americans from this risk by ensuring PII is removed from
manifests prior to CBP providing and selling the commercial
manifest information to data brokers. While it does not amend
other provisions of the Tariff Act or in any other way modify
Customs, authorities or trade policy, it does remove the U.S.
Government from making sensitive PII of servicemembers and
other Americans available to potential criminals as citizens
move back home to the United States.
Given the focused nature of this legislation and increase
in identity theft crimes in recent years, we urge the
Committee to agree to direct House consideration of the
Senate-passed version of the Moving Americans Privacy
Protection Act (S. 758) as a stand-alone bill under
suspension of the rules.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
American Trucking Associations,
International Association of Movers,
Military Officers Association of America,
Senior Executives Association,
Worldwide ERC.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I strongly encourage my colleagues to
support this commonsense measure today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz), an expert on this topic.
Mr. WALTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R.
1568, the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act.
This bipartisan, bicameral bill will require U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, CBP, to remove personally identifiable information,
including Social Security and passport numbers, from cargo manifests
before they are disclosed to the public.
Currently, CBP requires manifest sheets, which include PII, in order
to disclose and document the cargo of incoming vessels for customs and
security purposes. Now, originally, the intent of this requirement was
to increase competition. It was to facilitate better public analysis of
import trends. It was to allow port authorities and transportation
companies to more easily identify potential customers and changes in
their industry.
{time} 1645
Like many things we do here, it had a viable and good intent.
However, in recent years, the PII of relocating individuals has, again,
been publicly released. That has enabled identity theft. It has enabled
credit card fraud and unwanted solicitations.
Importantly, from a national security standpoint, the disclosure
allows our adversaries, from terrorist organizations to foreign
intelligence organizations of our adversaries like China, Russia, and
Iran, to easily access the PII of our servicemembers and their families
as they move around the globe to keep this great Nation free.
The personal identification, Mr. Speaker, of every American should be
safe and secure, but due to the current public disclosure of cargo
manifests, our servicemembers and their families are experiencing a
higher risk of identity theft, fraud, and targeting as they move abroad
in service of our Nation.
It is critical that we take the necessary steps to protect them from
this dangerous and fraudulent activity. The Moving Americans Privacy
Protection Act is essential to protect the private information not only
of our servicemembers but of all Americans.
I thank Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, Democrat co-lead,
Representative Pascrell, and particularly the Ways and Means staff for
their hard work and working with my team to move this bill through
committee and to the full House for consideration.
I look forward to passage by the full House. I encourage my
colleagues to support this legislation, and I look forward to working
with Senator Daines, in particular, in the Senate to get this important
bill signed into law.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, protecting the privacy of the American
people must be our priority. I strongly urge my colleagues to support
this commonsense measure.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have sufficiently
described the details of this bill, why we need to do it, and that we
should do it immediately.
I certainly urge my colleagues to support it so that we can get this
done, especially to assist our men and women in uniform.
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 Nebraska (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1568, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a
quorum is not present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.
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