Social Security Child Protection Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith for the opportunity to bring this up in committee and then for moving it out of committee. I thank the leader for bringing it to the floor for a vote.

This is about helping kids. I know when we talk about Social Security, we don't often think about kids. But remember, every child receives a Social Security number that follows them around for the rest of their life. Every year, there are kids whose Social Security numbers are lost or stolen in the mail and exposed to fraudsters.

Because children don't open bank accounts, they don't apply for lines of credit, and they don't seek employment, it can take them years to discover that their identity was stolen or to realize the effects of a stolen identity.

Under current policy, even if the child is aware that the Social Security number was stolen, a child must become victimized by actual fraud before the Social Security Administration will give them a new number.

That is ridiculous. If my bank issued a credit card and I didn't receive it in the mail, they wouldn't send me another copy of the same card. They would cancel the old one and send me a new card. Why would we treat our children any differently? We shouldn't.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to vote for the Social Security Child Protection Act. This bill would simply require that the Social Security Administration issue a new, different Social Security number to a child under the age of 14 if the card has been lost or stolen while being issued to the child in the mail.

Mr. Speaker, it is a simple fix to protect our children and make the process of interacting with the Social Security Administration easier. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

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