I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3601 

To direct the Commissioner of Social Security to implement certain 

recordkeeping recommendations, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 28, 2019 

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 recordkeeping 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 2019’’. 

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 34 cases in which it ap16 peared that the deceased numberholder’s name and 

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

18 one instance an employer reported paying wages to 

19 someone from 2008 through 2012 using a 

20 numberholder’s name and SSN that had been born 

21 in 1886. SSA payment records indicated that the 

22 numberholder died in January 1965, but the SSA 

23 did not record the numberholder’s death on the 

24 Numident. SSA continued paying benefits to the 

25 numberholder’s widow until her death in February 


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1 1973. SSA’s Master Earning File (MEF) contained 

2 no reported earnings information for this 

3 numberholder from 1956 through 2007. 

4 (5) The OIG determined that thousands of the 

5 SSNs could have been used to commit identity 

6 fraud. For tax years 2006 through 2011, SSA re7 ceived reports that individuals using 66,920 SSNs 

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

9 self-employment income. SSA transferred the earn10 ings to the Earnings Suspense File because the em11 ployees’ or self-employed individuals’ names on the 

12 earnings reports did not match the numberholders’ 

13 names. 

14 (6) During calendar years 2008 through 2011, 

15 employers made 4,024 E-Verify inquiries using 

16 3,873 SSNs belonging to numberholders born before 

17 June 16, 1901. According to the OIG, these inquir18 ies indicate individuals’ attempts to use the SSNs to 

19 apply for work. 

20 (7) The OIG determined that resolving these 

21 discrepancies will improve the accuracy and com22 pleteness of the Death Master File and help prevent 

23 future misuse of these SSNs. 

24 (8) The American taxpayer deserves to have the 

25 surety of knowing that every agency and department 


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1 within the Federal Government takes the prudent 

2 actions necessary to prevent future fraud and waste 

3 of hard-earned dollars. 

4 (9) In 2015, the OIG identified approximately 

5 6.5 million numberholders age 112 or older who did 

6 not have death information on the Numident. 

7 (10) Of the 6.5 million cases OIG identified, 

8 based on initial review, SSA believed approximately 

9 1.5 million of these individuals were deceased. After 

10 further in-depth analysis, SSA posted death infor11 mation to records for only those cases that passed 

12 complex identity matching protocols, and where the 

13 most current information indicated the individuals 

14 are in fact deceased. 

15 (11) For the remaining 5 million cases, the 

16 SSA reports that it does not have sufficient or reli17 able evidence that these individuals are deceased. 

18 However, the SSA also notes that the individuals 

19 have never received payments from the SSA; the 

20 records are decades old, and are the result of error21 prone paper reporting processes; it is possible that, 

22 decades ago, SSA incorrectly recorded some dates of 

23 birth and that some individuals are much younger 

24 than current records indicate; and it would be im25 prudent to presume death in order to add these 


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1 cases to the DMF because doing so could result in 

2 the inappropriate release of living individuals’ per3 sonally identifiable information—an action that has 

4 far-reaching and adverse consequences for these in5 dividuals. 

6 (12) In line with the OIG’s recommendations, 

7 the SSA should take proactive action to fully protect 

8 the American taxpayer by ensuring that there are 

9 comprehensive controls in place to annotate death 

10 information on the Numident records of 

11 numberholders who exceeded maximum reasonable 

12 life expectancies. 

13 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF OIG RECOMMENDATIONS. 

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

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

16 Social Security shall implement all of the recommenda17 tions described in the memorandum from the Office of the 

18 Inspector General of the Social Security Administration 

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

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

21 and dated March 4, 2015. 

22 (b) ADDITIONAL PAYMENT TO INDIVIDUALS ATTAIN23 ING 100 YEARS OF AGE.—The Commissioner of Social Se24 curity shall make a one-time payment in the amount of 

25 $100 to each individual who, according to the records of 


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1 the Commissioner of Social Security, attains 100 years of 

2 age after the date of enactment of this Act and applies 

3 for such payment. 

4 (c) REPORT.—Not later than December 31 of each 

5 calendar year that begins after the date of the enactment 

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

7 such date of enactment, the Commissioner shall submit 

8 to the Congress a report on the progress made toward im9 plementation of each of the recommendations described in 

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

11 used to implement such recommendations, the amount of 

12 funds expended and any other resources utilized to imple13 ment such recommendations, and the projected date of full 

14 implementation. 

Æ 


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