108TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 1731

AN ACT

To amend title 18, United States Code, to establish

other purposes.penalties for aggravated identity theft, and for

108TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 1731

AN ACT

To amend title 18, United States Code, to establish penalties

for aggravated identity theft, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Identity Theft Penalty

3 Enhancement Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, United

6 States Code, is amended by adding after section 1028, the

7 following:

8 ‘‘§ 1028A. Aggravated identity theft

9 ‘‘(a) OFFENSES.—

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Whoever, during and in re11 lation to any felony violation enumerated in sub12 section (c), knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses,

13 without lawful authority, a means of identification of

14 another person shall, in addition to the punishment

15 provided for such felony, be sentenced to a term of

16 imprisonment of 2 years.

17 ‘‘(2) TERRORISM OFFENSE.—Whoever, during

18 and in relation to any felony violation enumerated in

19 section 2332b(g)(5)(B), knowingly transfers, pos20 sesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of

21 identification of another person or a false identifica22 tion document shall, in addition to the punishment

23 provided for such felony, be sentenced to a term of

24 imprisonment of 5 years.

25 ‘‘(b) CONSECUTIVE SENTENCE.—Notwithstanding

26 any other provision of law—
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1 ‘‘(1) a court shall not place on probation any

2 person convicted of a violation of this section;

3 ‘‘(2) except as provided in paragraph (4), no

4 term of imprisonment imposed on a person under

5 this section shall run concurrently with any other

6 term of imprisonment imposed on the person under

7 any other provision of law, including any term of im8 prisonment imposed for the felony during which the

9 means of identification was transferred, possessed,

10 or used;

11 ‘‘(3) in determining any term of imprisonment

12 to be imposed for the felony during which the means

13 of identification was transferred, possessed, or used,

14 a court shall not in any way reduce the term to be

15 imposed for such crime so as to compensate for, or

16 otherwise take into account, any separate term of

17 imprisonment imposed or to be imposed for a viola18 tion of this section; and

19 ‘‘(4) a term of imprisonment imposed on a per20 son for a violation of this section may, in the discre21 tion of the court, run concurrently, in whole or in

22 part, only with another term of imprisonment that

23 is imposed by the court at the same time on that

24 person for an additional violation of this section,

25 provided that such discretion shall be exercised in
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1 accordance with any applicable guidelines and policy

2 statements issued by the Sentencing Commission

3 pursuant to section 994 of title 28.

4 ‘‘(c) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the

5 term ‘felony violation enumerated in subsection (c)’ means

6 any offense that is a felony violation of—

7 ‘‘(1) section 641 (relating to theft of public

8 money, property, or rewards), section 656 (relating

9 to theft, embezzlement, or misapplication by bank

10 officer or employee), or section 664 (relating to theft

11 from employee benefit plans);

12 ‘‘(2) section 911 (relating to false personation

13 of citizenship);

14 ‘‘(3) section 922(a)(6) (relating to false state15 ments in connection with the acquisition of a fire16 arm);

17 ‘‘(4) any provision contained in this chapter (re18 lating to fraud and false statements), other than this

19 section or section 1028(a)(7);

20 ‘‘(5) any provision contained in chapter 63 (re21 lating to mail, bank, and wire fraud);

22 ‘‘(6) any provision contained in chapter 69 (re23 lating to nationality and citizenship);

24 ‘‘(7) any provision contained in chapter 75 (re25 lating to passports and visas);
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1 ‘‘(8) section 523 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley

2 Act (15 U.S.C. 6823) (relating to obtaining cus3 tomer information by false pretenses);

4 ‘‘(9) section 243 or 266 of the Immigration and

5 Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1253 and 1306) (relating

6 to willfully failing to leave the United States after

7 deportation and creating a counterfeit alien registra8 tion card);

9 ‘‘(10) any provision contained in chapter 8 of

10 title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8

11 U.S.C. 1321 et seq.) (relating to various immigra12 tion offenses); or

13 ‘‘(11) section 208, 811, 1107(b), 1128B(a), or

14 1632 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 408,

15 1011, 1307(b), 1320a–7b(a), and 1383a) (relating

16 to false statements relating to programs under the

17 Act).’’.

18 (b) AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER ANALYSIS.—The table

19 of sections for chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code,

20 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section

21 1028 the following new item:

‘‘1028A. Aggravated identity theft.’’.

22 (c) APPLICATION OF DEFINITIONS FROM SECTION

23 1028.—Section 1028(d) of title 18, United States Code,

24 is amended by inserting ‘‘and section 1028A’’ after ‘‘In

25 this section’’.
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1 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO EXISTING IDENTITY THEFT PRO2 HIBITION.

3 Section 1028 of title 18, United States Code, is

4 amended—

5 (1) in subsection (a)(7)—

6 (A) by striking ‘‘transfers’’ and inserting

7 ‘‘transfers, possesses,’’; and

8 (B) by striking ‘‘abet,’’ and inserting

9 ‘‘abet, or in connection with,’’;

10 (2) in subsection (b)(1)(D), by striking ‘‘trans11 fer’’ and inserting ‘‘transfer, possession,’’;

12 (3) in subsection (b)(2), by striking ‘‘three

13 years’’ and inserting ‘‘5 years’’; and

14 (4) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting after ‘‘fa15 cilitate’’ the following: ‘‘an act of domestic terrorism

16 (as defined under section 2331(5) of this title) or’’.

17 SEC. 4. AGGREGATION OF VALUE FOR PURPOSES OF SEC18 TION 641.

19 The penultimate paragraph of section 641 of title 18

20 of the United States Code is amended by inserting ‘‘in

21 the aggregate, combining amounts from all the counts for

22 which the defendant is convicted in a single case,’’ after

23 ‘‘value of such property’’ .
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1 SEC. 5. DIRECTIVE TO THE UNITED STATES SENTENCING

2 COMMISSION.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Pursuant to its authority under

4 section 994(p) of title 28, United States Code, and in ac5 cordance with this section, the United States Sentencing

6 Commission shall review and amend its guidelines and its

7 policy statements to ensure that the guideline offense lev8 els and enhancements appropriately punish identity theft

9 offenses involving an abuse of position.

10 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out this section,

11 the United States Sentencing Commission shall do the fol12 lowing:

13 (1) Amend U.S.S.G. section 3B1.3 (Abuse of

14 Position of Trust of Use of Special Skill) to apply

15 to and punish offenses in which the defendant ex16 ceeds or abuses the authority of his or her position

17 in order to obtain unlawfully or use without author18 ity any means of identification, as defined section

19 1028(d)(4) of title 18, United States Code.

20 (2) Ensure reasonable consistency with other

21 relevant directives, other sentencing guidelines, and

22 statutory provisions.

23 (3) Make any necessary and conforming

24 changes to the sentencing guidelines.
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1 (4) Ensure that the guidelines adequately meet

2 the purposes of sentencing set forth in section

3 3553(a)(2) of title 18, United States Code.

4 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

5 In addition to any other sums authorized to be appro6 priated for this purpose, there is authorized to be appro7 priated to the Department of Justice, for the investigation

8 and prosecution of identity theft and related credit card

9 and other fraud cases constituting felony violations of law,

10 $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and $2,000,000 for each

11 of the 4 succeeding fiscal years.

Passed the House of Representatives June 23, 2004.

Attest:

Clerk.