I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2720 

To amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide for the treatment 

of death information furnished to or maintained by the Social Security 

Administration, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 18, 2013 

Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas (for himself and Mr. BECERRA) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide 

for the treatment of death information furnished to or 

maintained by the Social Security Administration, 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Alexis Agin Identity 

5 Theft Protection Act of 2013’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON DISTRIBUTION OF DEATH INFOR2 MATION FURNISHED TO OR MAINTAINED BY 

3 THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 205(r) of the Social Secu5 rity Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)) is amended— 

6 (1) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘, and to en7 sure completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of,’’ 

8 after ‘‘transmitting’’; 

9 (2) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the 

10 following: 

11 ‘‘(3) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, to 

12 the extent feasible, provide for the use of information re13 garding deceased individuals furnished to or maintained 

14 by the Commissioner, subject to such safeguards as the 

15 Commissioner of Social Security determines are necessary 

16 or appropriate to protect the information from unauthor17 ized use or disclosure, to any Federal or State agency pro18 viding or administering Federally funded benefits to indi19 viduals, other than benefits under this Act, through a co20 operative arrangement with such agency designed to en21 sure proper payment of those benefits with respect to such 

22 individuals if— 

23 ‘‘(A) under such arrangement the agency pro24 vides reimbursement to the Commissioner of Social 

25 Security for the reasonable costs of carrying out 

26 such arrangement, including the reasonable costs asVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:10 Jul 20, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2720.IH H2720

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1 sociated with the collection and maintenance of in2 formation regarding deceased individuals furnished 

3 to the Commissioner pursuant to paragraph (1); and 

4 ‘‘(B) such arrangement does not conflict with 

5 the duties of the Commissioner of Social Security 

6 under paragraph (1).’’; 

7 (3) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘or in benefit 

8 and pension plans for employees of the States or 

9 local governments’’ after ‘‘by the States’’; 

10 (4) by striking paragraph (5) and inserting the 

11 following: 

12 ‘‘(5)(A) The Commissioner of Social Security may 

13 use or provide for the use of information regarding de14 ceased individuals furnished to or maintained by the Com15 missioner, subject to such safeguards as the Commissioner 

16 of Social Security determines are necessary or appropriate 

17 to protect the information from unauthorized use or dis18 closure, provided the requirements of subparagraphs (A) 

19 and (B) of paragraph (3) are met and such information 

20 is provided— 

21 ‘‘(i) to any Federal agency through a coopera22 tive agreement with such agency for the purpose of 

23 law enforcement or tax administration; or 

24 ‘‘(ii) for statistical and research activities con25 ducted by Federal and State agencies. 


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1 ‘‘(B) A Federal or State agency may disclose death 

2 information obtained from the Commissioner to a con3 tractor for the purposes of assisting with such law enforce4 ment, tax administration, or statistical and research ac5 tivities, provided that the agency ensures, at a minimum, 

6 that the contractor fulfills the requirements of clauses (ii) 

7 and (iv) of paragraph (7)(E).’’; 

8 (5) by striking paragraph (7) and inserting the 

9 following: 

10 ‘‘(7)(A) For purposes of this paragraph, death infor11 mation shall consist of information regarding deceased in12 dividuals maintained by the Commissioner of Social Secu13 rity, except for information furnished to or maintained by 

14 the Commissioner pursuant to paragraphs (1) or (2), and 

15 the death information to be provided shall consist only of 

16 the name, social security number, date of birth, and date 

17 of death of a deceased individual.’’ 

18 ‘‘(B) The Commissioner may disclose death informa19 tion under this paragraph to the Secretary of Defense pro20 vided that— 

21 ‘‘(i) the Secretary uses the information provided 

22 solely for the purpose of assisting in the identifica23 tion of unidentified remains, and 

24 ‘‘(ii) the Secretary enforces requirements simi25 lar to those in clauses (i), (ii), (iv), (v), (vi), and 


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1 (vii) with respect to any contractor the Secretary 

2 hires to assist in such identifications. 

3 ‘‘(C) The Commissioner of Social Security may dis4 close death information, except for information furnished 

5 to or maintained by the Commissioner of Social Security 

6 pursuant to paragraphs (1) or (2), provided the require7 ments of this paragraph and the requirements of subpara8 graphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (3) are met. 

9 ‘‘(D) The Commissioner may disclose— 

10 ‘‘(i) to any entity, information maintained by 

11 the Commissioner concerning individuals whose date 

12 of death occurred at least 3 calendar years prior to 

13 the year that the entity requests such information 

14 pursuant to a written agreement; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) to any entity ‘certified’ by the Commis16 sioner under subparagraph (E), information main17 tained by the Commissioner concerning individuals 

18 whose date of death does not satisfy the require19 ments of clause (i), pursuant to a written agreement 

20 between the Commissioner and the entity. 

21 ‘‘(E) For purposes of this paragraph an entity is ‘cer22 tified’ only if the Commissioner— 

23 ‘‘(i) establishes procedures to certify and decer24 tify entities eligible to obtain such information; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) includes in the agreement with such an en2 tity provisions to require such entity to safeguard 

3 the information provided, assure that the informa4 tion is used only for the purpose which was the basis 

5 for the certification, assure that the information is 

6 not disclosed by the entity to any other entity, and 

7 include contractual penalties, including monetary 

8 penalties and loss of certification, for the violation of 

9 any requirements imposed by the Commissioner as a 

10 condition of receiving the information; 

11 ‘‘(iii) requires that the entity demonstrate 

12 that— 

13 ‘‘(I) it has a legitimate business need for 

14 the information, which shall include a require15 ment that the information regarding a deceased 

16 individual will aid in preventing financial harm 

17 to the entity or to a customer or client of the 

18 entity or will aid in permitting the entity to ful19 fill an obligation to a beneficiary of an indi20 vidual that is contingent upon the death of such 

21 individual; or 

22 ‘‘(II) it has a legitimate interest in pre23 venting fraud or unauthorized financial trans24 actions; 


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1 ‘‘(iv) requires that the entity demonstrate that 

2 it has infrastructure and procedures in place to pre3 vent wrongful access to or the disclosure of informa4 tion provided by the Commissioner; 

5 ‘‘(v) determines that the entity has adequate 

6 experience and expertise in maintaining the con7 fidentiality and security of information; 

8 ‘‘(vi) includes such other requirements and re9 strictions as the Commissioner deems appropriate to 

10 assure the confidentiality of the information; and 

11 ‘‘(vii) requires that the entity permit periodic 

12 and unscheduled audits of the entity to assure com13 pliance with the requirements established by the 

14 Commissioner. 

15 ‘‘(F) The Commissioner shall establish application 

16 and other fees to be paid by entities seeking to be certified 

17 or to maintain certification under this paragraph so that 

18 the Commissioner is fully reimbursed for all costs associ19 ated with development of the certification process, evalu20 ating applications, auditing compliance with the require21 ments established by the Commissioner, inspecting records 

22 and assuring compliance with contract requirements, and 

23 any other costs associated with assuring continuing eligi24 bility for certification under this paragraph. 


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1 ‘‘(G) For purposes of this paragraph, the terms ‘enti2 ty’ or ‘entities’ includes ‘individual’ and ‘individuals’ re3 spectively. 

4 ‘‘(H) The Commissioner may delegate any of the ac5 tivities under this paragraph to another agency and may 

6 perform any activity through a contractor, provided that 

7 the delegation or contract requires such agency or con8 tractor to comply with all requirements of this section and 

9 of the implementing policies developed by the Commis10 sioner.’’; 

11 (6) by adding at the end the following new 

12 paragraph: 

13 ‘‘(10) Information related to a deceased individual re14 ceived by the Commissioner of Social Security other than 

15 as described in paragraph (1) shall be treated for purposes 

16 of paragraph (6) in the same manner as information re17 ceived as described in paragraph (1).’’. 

18 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

19 of the enactment of this Act and each year thereafter 

20 through 2019, the Commissioner of Social Security shall 

21 submit to the Committee on Finance of the Senate and 

22 the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Rep23 resentatives a report describing the entities certified by 

24 the Commissioner under section 205(r)(7) of the Social 

25 Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405(r)(7)) during the preceding 


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1 year and their compliance with the requirements of sub2 paragraph (E) of such section. 

3 (c) EFFECTIVE DATES.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para5 graph (2), the amendments made by this section 

6 take effect on the date that is 60 days after the date 

7 of the enactment of this Act. 

8 (2) EXCEPTION.—The amendment made by 

9 subsection (a)(6) shall take effect on January 1, 

10 2014. 

11 (d) SUNSET.—Subparagraphs (C) through (H) of 

12 section 205(r)(7) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 

13 405(r)(7)) (as amended by subsection (a)) shall cease to 

14 be effective on January 1, 2019, except that— 

15 (1) clauses (ii) and (iv) of subparagraph (E) of 

16 such section shall continue to apply for purposes of 

17 section 205(r)(5)(B) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

18 405(r)(5)(B)) (as amended by subsection (a)). 

Æ 


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