[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 117 (Monday, June 17, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30653-30655]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-15265]



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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION


Privacy Act of 1974; Report of New Routine Use

AGENCY: Social Security Administration.

ACTION: New routine use.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(e) (4) and 
(11)), we are issuing public notice of our intent to establish a new 
routine use of information maintained in the Privacy Act system of 
records entitled Master Files of Social Security Number (SSN) Holders 
and SSN Applications, SSA/OSR, 09-60-0058. (For convenience, we will 
refer to the system as the Enumeration System.) The proposed routine 
use provides for disclosure of SSN and citizenship information to 
employers in connection with a pilot program to verify the employment 
authorization of newly-hired employees.
    We invite public comments on this publication.

DATES: We filed a report of an altered systems of records--new routine 
use with the Chairman, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of 
the House of Representatives, the Chairman, Committee on Governmental 
Affairs of the Senate, and the Administrator, Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget on June 4, 1996. 
The routine use will become effective as proposed, without further 
notice on July 29, 1996, unless we receive comments on or before that 
date that would result in a contrary determination.

ADDRESSES: Interested individuals may comment on this publication by 
writing to the SSA Privacy Officer, Social Security Administration, 
Room 3-A-6 Operations Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, 
Maryland 21235. Comments may be faxed to (410) 966-0869 or sent to 
internet address [email protected]. All comments received will be 
available for public inspection at that address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Willie J. Polk, Chief, 
Confidentiality and Disclosure Branch, Office of Disclosure Policy, 
Social Security Administration, 3-D-1 Operations Building, 6401 
Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235, telephone 410-965-1753.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Discussion of Proposed Routine Use

    On February 7, 1995, President Clinton announced that SSA, in 
partnership with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), will 
conduct a pilot project to verify SSNs and employment authorization for 
newly-hired employees.
    To work in the United States (U.S.), a person must be a U.S. 
citizen or an alien lawfully admitted to the country and authorized to 
work. Employers are currently required to view documents from all 
newly-hired employees to verify their identities and their 
authorization to work in the U.S. That process has been cumbersome for 
employers and is generally viewed as ineffective at identifying 
unauthorized workers. It has also been found to provide an opportunity 
for discrimination against people who look or sound foreign.
    The Commission on Immigration Reform (also known as the Jordan 
Commission) released an interim report to the Congress in September 
1994 that proposed a computer registry based on SSA and INS data that 
employers could check to determine if a newly-hired employee is 
authorized to work. The Commission recommended that the President 
immediately pilot the registry in the five States with the highest 
levels of illegal immigration and several less affected States. SSA and 
INS estimate it would take at least 5 years after the enactment of 
legislation to set up the joint computer registry proposed by the 
Jordan Commission. The President has authorized SSA and INS to develop 
pilot projects to test the effectiveness of some of the concepts 
embodied in the computer registry proposal, and to test the technical 
feasibility of matching data from the two agencies' databases.
    The focus of the current pilot project would involve a two-step 
process using existing SSA and INS data bases. Current plans call for 
selected volunteer employers to provide SSA with a newly-hired 
employee's SSN, name and date of birth. SSA would match that 
information against the Enumeration System data base. If the 
identifying information furnished by the employer does not match the 
data in the Enumeration System, SSA would so inform the employer. If 
there is a match, SSA would also check for citizenship/alien status 
coding. If the Enumeration System indicates that the employee is a U.S. 
citizen, SSA's response would

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convey this information and no further inquiries would be necessary. If 
the Enumeration System indicates that the employee was an alien at the 
time he or she last applied for a social security card, SSA would 
advise the employer to check with INS to determine whether the employee 
is authorized to work.
    To comply with the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) when disclosing 
information to the employers participating in the pilot, we are 
proposing to establish the following routine use:

    In connection with a pilot program, conducted with the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service under 8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)(4) to 
test methods of verifying that individuals are authorized to work in 
the United States, the Social Security Administration will inform an 
employer participating in such pilot program that the identifying 
data (Social Security number, name and date of birth) furnished by 
an employer concerning a particular employee match, or do not match, 
the data maintained in this system of records, and when there is 
such a match, that information in this system of records indicates 
that the employee is, or is not, a citizen of the United States.

B. Compatibility of Proposed Routine Use

    We are proposing the routine use discussed above in accordance with 
the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(a)(7), (b)(3), and (e) (4) and (11)) and 
our disclosure regulation (20 CFR part 401). The Privacy Act permits us 
to disclose information about individuals without their consents for a 
routine use, i.e., where the information will be used for a purpose 
that is compatible with the purpose for which we collected the 
information. The disclosures that will be made under the proposed 
routine use meet the compatibility requirements in the Privacy Act and 
the regulation as discussed below.
    Under 8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)(1), the Immigration and Nationality Act 
provides that it is unlawful for a person or other entity to hire, or 
to recruit or refer for a fee, for employment in the U.S. an individual 
without verifying that the individual is authorized to work in the U.S. 
Among the documents that can be used to verify the individual's 
authorization to work in the U.S., as discussed in 8 U.S.C. 
1324a(b)(1), is the SSN card ``(other than such a card which specifies 
on the face that the issuance of the card does not authorize employment 
in the United States).'' Thus, the SSN and SSN card have a major role 
in the current process for verification of an employee's authorization 
to work in the U.S. Further, 8 U.S.C. 1324a(d) allows the President to 
consider the suitability of existing Federal identification systems for 
use in determining employment authorization and to undertake 
demonstration projects, such as the pilot project described above, that 
test the usefulness of such systems for improving employment 
verification. SSA's Enumeration System is such a Federal identification 
system. This statutory authority has been invoked with respect to the 
pilot project described above. Consequently, with respect to the pilot 
project, 8 U.S.C. 1324a(d) establishes employment authorization 
verification as one of the purposes for which SSA collects and 
maintains information in its Enumeration System. Use of that 
information by employers participating in that pilot project to verify 
authorization to work in the U.S. clearly serves that purpose.
    In addition, sections 205(c)(2) and 208(a)(7) and (8) of the Social 
Security Act (the Act) also support a finding of compatibility. Under 
section 205(c)(2)(A) of the Act, SSA is required to establish and 
maintain records of the amounts of wages paid to individuals and of the 
periods in which such wages were paid. In performing these duties, SSA 
is required by section 205(c)(2)(B)(i)(I) of the Act to arrange for the 
issuance of SSNs to certain groups, including aliens lawfully admitted 
to the U.S. for permanent residence or under other authority to work in 
the U.S. Section 205(c)(2)(B)(ii) of the Act provides that SSA must 
require all applicants for SSNs to furnish evidence to establish the 
age, citizenship, or alien status, and true identity of such 
applicants, and to determine which (if any) SSN has previously been 
assigned to such individual. This provision was enacted to address, 
among other things, concerns about use of SSNs by aliens entering the 
U.S. illegally and work in the U.S. by aliens who are not authorized to 
do so. Further, section 208(a)(7)(B) and (a)(8) of the Act provides 
that any individual who, with intent to deceive for any purpose, 
falsely represents that a particular SSN was assigned to him or her 
when it was not so assigned, or uses the SSN of any person in violation 
of the laws of the U.S., is guilty of a felony.
    Some of the statutorily authorized purposes for which SSA collects 
and uses information maintained in the Enumeration System are: (1) To 
keep accurate records of earnings as required by section 205(c)(2)(A) 
of the Act; (2) to detect instances in which an individual uses an SSN 
that has not been assigned to him or her; (3) to prevent the issuance 
of an SSN to an individual who has not furnished evidence that he or 
she is lawfully admitted to the U.S.; and (4) to deter and detect work 
in the U.S. that is not authorized by law.
    The services we would provide to employers under the pilot project 
would assist them in reporting accurate wages to SSA and would help 
prevent and deter individuals from engaging in criminal activity 
described in section 208(a)(7) and (8) of the Act and unauthorized work 
in the U.S. Thus, the services that SSA would render to employers who 
would participate in the proposed pilot would serve some of the same 
purposes for which SSA collects and maintains the SSN and citizenship/
alien status information in the Enumeration System.
    In furnishing the services described above to employers who 
participate in the employment authorization pilot, SSA would perform 
functions for which it is responsible under Federal law, 8 U.S.C. 
1324a(d). This activity would be necessary to carry out a Social 
Security program, as defined in 20 CFR 401.110, and would be consistent 
with SSA's disclosure regulation, 20 CFR 401.310. The regulation (20 
CFR 401.310) provides, in part, that we will disclose information under 
a routine use ``where necessary to carry out Social Security 
programs.'' For purposes of that regulation, ``Social Security 
program'' is defined as ``any program or provision of law which SSA is 
responsible for administering * * *'' 20 CFR 401.110.

C. Effect of the Proposal on Individual Rights

    The pilot is designed to assist employers in identifying employees 
who are not authorized to work in the U.S. When operating the pilot, 
SSA and INS will apply appropriate measures to ensure that the privacy 
rights of employees whose SSNs are verified under the pilot are 
protected to the full extent of the Privacy Act and all other 
applicable laws. SSA and INS will negotiate a written agreement with 
each participating employer that delineates the employer's 
responsibilities and states the safeguards the employer must apply to 
protect the privacy of information received from SSA and/or INS. 
Individuals will have the opportunity to reconcile any discrepancies 
between the information they furnish to their employers and the records 
of SSA before their employers can take any adverse action based on 
those discrepancies. Because employers participating in the pilot must 
confirm that all new hires are authorized to work, these disclosures 
should serve to lessen the incidence of discrimination against people 
who look or sound foreign. Also, we will keep a detailed

[[Page 30655]]

audit trail record of all disclosures made under the pilot. For these 
reasons, we do not anticipate that the disclosures will have any 
unwarranted adverse effect on the rights of individuals.

    Dated: June 4, 1996.
Shirley S. Chater,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 96-15265 Filed 6-14-96; 8:45 am]
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