Curbelo Urges Committee Passage of Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act Committee on Ways and Means

Statement

Representative Carlos Curbelo: "Thank you very much Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Neal for bringing this bill, the "Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act' before the Committee today. And thank you, Congressman Marchant, for being my partner on the legislation and for all of your work to bring this legislation to the Committee.

"Unfortunately, my district in South Florida is very familiar with the lengths at which fraudsters will go through to steal the identity of a child. The fact that children's identities and personal information are being stolen 50 times more than adults cannot continue unaddressed.

"The Government Accountability Office describes synthetic identity fraud (SIF) as involving the creation of a fictitious identity by using a combination of real data, like a Social Security number or date of birth, from multiple individuals and fabricated information.

"Today, synthetic identity fraud accounts for 80 percent of all credit card fraud. Transunion says a record $355 million in outstanding credit-card balances was owed by people who it suspects didn't exist in 2017, up more than eightfold from 2012.

"Synthetic identity fraud usually preys on children and immigrants. In the long-run it often times damages their credit history, making it more difficult to get approved for a mortgage or a credit card at a later point in life.

"We can do more to protect children and immigrants from identity theft. Through creative proposals, like the bill we are considering today, we can protect the identity of individuals by leveraging new technologies to simplify the verification system.

"H.R. 5192, the "Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act' directs the Social Security Administration to accept electronic signatures when financial institutions want to verify their customers' information. Currently, firms may seek verification one name and Social Security number at a time, or up to 10 at a time. The creditor must be in physical possession of the signed consent Form SSA-89, or so-called "wet signature,' prior to requesting Social Security number verifications.

"Mr. Chairman, the goal of this bill is to change the outdated inefficiencies of the current system. The SSA provides important services and benefits that millions of Americans rely on. This bill protects the SSA's ability to do its important work by requiring the users to cover all costs--both direct and indirect--of this new system. Under this bill, the SSA Commissioner is not allowed to begin development of the new verification system until the Commissioner determines that at least 50 percent of the program start-up costs have been covered by users. If the SSA temporarily uses IT modernization funds, the Commissioner is required to fully recover those funds through user fees. After initial development, users of the verification system are obligated to pay for the ongoing costs associated with this new workload by way of advances, reimbursements, user fees, or other recoveries as determined by the Commissioner. These users are financial institutions, by the way.

"Identity theft is an issue that affects each of our districts. We need efficient solutions that can help protect our children's identities from bad actors. This bill is a step in the right direction. I encourage all of the Members of this Committee to vote in favor of H.R. 5192, the "Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act,' to help modernize identity protections for our children."

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