Protecting Children From Identity Theft Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of the Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act.
I would also like to begin by thanking Leader McCarthy and my colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee, especially Carlos Curbelo, for his support in bringing this legislation to the House floor.
H.R. 5192 will bring the Social Security Administration into the 21st century to assist the private sector in combating identity fraud. Identity theft affects thousands, if not millions, of children and families a year. A report by Carnegie Mellon CyLab examined more than 40,000 cases of identity theft and found that 10 percent of children in the study had someone else using their Social Security number. Among other things, children's identities were used to purchase homes and open credit card accounts.
According to the information recently published by the Algonquin Patch, Illinois ranks number seven in the United States for identity theft. The median loss for fraud is nearly $500. Credit card fraud is the most common type of fraud.
For example, in Wilmette, Illinois, the Social Security number of a 13-year-old was used by a fraudster to open a credit card with a plan to use it to pay for plastic surgery. Imagine when these children go to get their first legitimate extension of credit, maybe a car loan or a student loan, only to find out that criminals have stolen their identities and wrecked their financial standing.
The Protecting Children from Identity Theft will strengthen the relationship between the public and private sectors in order to combat identity theft. Specifically, it will bring the Social Security Administration into the 21st century by allowing companies who meet strict regulatory standards to electronically confirm whether a name, date of birth, and Social Security number match.
This will make it much easier for companies, such as credit card issuers, to ensure that they are only providing credit to legitimate applicants. This will prevent millions of dollars in fraud costs, not to mention preventing all of the headaches for my constituents whose identities will be at risk unless this bill is signed into law.
Again, I want to encourage all of my colleagues to vote in support of the Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act.
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