Social Security Child Protection Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, the Social Security number really is a key to identity theft, and thieves have had a field day with these Social Security numbers and the identity theft and the invasion of privacy that occurs.

A full 10 years ago, I authored a measure here in the House to remove this information from the Medicare card. The next session, finally in 2010, we were able to pass that through the House with the help of Representative Johnson. It was a bipartisan initiative.

Then the Senate didn't pass it.

When Republicans took over control of the House, Mr. Johnson appropriately took the lead on that legislation, and he worked at it for a while, and, finally, in 2015, he got it passed to remove the Social Security number from the Medicare card.

As Representative Johnson knows, finally, now, 10 years from when we started in June of this year, it looks like seniors will begin getting their Medicare cards without the Social Security number on it, to protect their privacy and to avoid the exploitation that has occurred.

To his credit, Mr. Marchant has identified another group of very vulnerable individuals: children. Carnegie Mellon did a study that reported that nearly 10 percent of America's children have had their identity already stolen, and the Social Security number is a factor in that. That is significantly higher than it is for adults, some 51 times higher, according to the Carnegie Mellon study.

Children are particularly vulnerable in this regard because they don't have a driver's license. They are really kind of a blank canvas. They don't work, and they don't establish credit. This allows theft and fraud to go undetected for many years in some cases.

By the time that they are young adults, they could unknowingly be buried in debt and face delays in very important steps in their education, in their work, in getting their first job, in getting that driver's license or applying for a student loan.

I salute Mr. Marchant for seeing that this is a problem. I am pleased to join him and my colleague, Mr. Davis, from Chicago in supporting this measure.

Children and their parents or their guardians acting on their behalf deserve a streamlined process that will allow for a child to be issued a new Social Security number long before any misuse occurs.

No child should have to wait for the inevitable harm to come along and have their identity stolen before action occurs. Building on the success that we have had with seniors, and I hope in a much more prompt fashion than we were able to do it for seniors, we now, through Mr. Marchant's efforts, are working to ensure, once again on a bipartisan basis, that we provide the same kind of protection for infants and children from baseless identity thieves.

Madam Speaker, I urge adoption of the legislation.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I will close.

I am pleased to note that H.R. 1512 and other bills before us today take important steps to decrease identity theft. I know that identity theft is one of the top issues that the Chicago Taxpayer Advocate addresses. Helping prevent identity fraud and helping taxpayers deal with identity theft are important improvements.

Madam Speaker, I urge passage of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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