I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2777 

To direct the Commissioner of Social Security to implement certain record 

keeping recommendations, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 15, 2015 

Mr. KING of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To direct the Commissioner of Social Security to implement 

certain record keeping recommendations, 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 ‘‘Social Security Integ5 rity Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Individuals can commit various types of 

9 fraud against the Government by reporting earnings 


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1 under deceased individuals’ Social Security Numbers 

2 (SSNs). 

3 (2) Various Federal entities rely on the Social 

4 Security Administration’s (SSA) death information 

5 to detect unreported deaths and verify the accuracy 

6 of reported deaths. 

7 (3) The Numident is the SSA’s computer data8 base file on all who have applied for a Social Secu9 rity number. The Office of the Inspector General 

10 (OIG) of the SSA conducted an audit and deter11 mined that the SSA did not have controls in place 

12 to annotate death information on the Numident 

13 records of numberholders who exceeded maximum 

14 reasonable life expectancies and were likely deceased. 

15 (4) The OIG identified approximately 6.5 mil16 lion numberholders age 112 or older who did not 

17 have death information on the Numident. 

18 (5) The OIG identified 34 cases in which it ap19 peared that the deceased numberholder’s name and 

20 Social Security Number (SSN) had been misused. In 

21 one instance an employer reported paying wages to 

22 someone from 2008 through 2012 using a 

23 numberholder’s name and SSN that had been born 

24 in 1886. SSA payment records indicated that the 

25 numberholder died in January 1965, but the SSA 


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1 did not record the numberholder’s death on the 

2 Numident. SSA continued paying benefits to the 

3 numberholder’s widow until her death in February 

4 1973. SSA’s Master Earning File (MEF) contained 

5 no reported earnings information for this 

6 numberholder from 1956 through 2007. 

7 (6) The OIG determined that thousands of the 

8 SSNs could have been used to commit identity 

9 fraud. For tax years 2006 through 2011, SSA re10 ceived reports that individuals using 66,920 SSNs 

11 had approximately $3.1 billion in wages, tips, and 

12 self-employment income. SSA transferred the earn13 ings to the Earnings Suspense File because the em14 ployees’ or self-employed individuals’ names on the 

15 earnings reports did not match the numberholders’ 

16 names. 

17 (7) During calendar years 2008 through 2011, 

18 employers made 4,024 E-Verify inquiries using 

19 3,873 SSNs belonging to numberholders born before 

20 June 16, 1901. According to the OIG, these inquir21 ies indicate individuals’ attempts to use the SSNs to 

22 apply for work. 

23 (8) The OIG determined that resolving these 

24 discrepancies will improve the accuracy and comVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:21 Jun 18, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2777.IH H2777

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1 pleteness of the Death Master File and help prevent 

2 future misuse of these SSNs. 

3 (9) The American taxpayer deserves to have the 

4 surety of knowing that every agency and department 

5 within the Federal Government takes the prudent 

6 actions necessary to prevent future fraud and waste 

7 of hard-earned dollars. 

8 (10) In line with the OIG’s recommendations, 

9 the SSA should take proactive action to protect the 

10 American taxpayer by ensuring that there are con11 trols in place to annotate death information on the 

12 Numident records of numberholders who exceeded 

13 maximum reasonable life expectancies. 

14 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF OIG RECOMMENDATIONS. 

15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years after the 

16 date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of 

17 Social Security shall implement all of the recommenda18 tions described in the memorandum from the Office of the 

19 Inspector General of the Social Security Administration 

20 entitled ‘‘Numberholders Age 112 or Older Who Did Not 

21 Have a Death Entry on the Numident (A–06–14–34030)’’ 

22 and dated March 4, 2015. 

23 (b) REPORT.—Not later than December 31 of each 

24 calendar year that begins after the date of the enactment 

25 of this Act and ends before the date that is 3 years after 


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1 such date of enactment, the Commissioner shall submit 

2 to the Congress a report on the progress made toward im3 plementation of each of the recommendations described in 

4 the memorandum specified in subsection (a), the methods 

5 used to implement such recommendations, the amount of 

6 funds expended and any other resources utilized to imple7 ment such recommendations, and the projected date of full 

8 implementation. 

Æ 


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