II

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1223

To protect personal employment information reported to the National

Directory of New Hires.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 26, 1997

Mr. BURNS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To protect personal employment information reported to the

National Directory of New Hires.

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 ‘‘Employee Information

5 Protection Act of 1997’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:

8 (1) The Personal Responsibility and Work Op9 portunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law

10 104–193; 110 Stat.2105) requires Federal and State
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1 child support enforcement agencies to implement

2 new programs to collect overdue child support pay3 ments, thereby reducing the burden on taxpayers by

4 lowering welfare payments.

5 (2) Among the new programs created under

6 such Act and the amendments made by such Act, is

7 the National Directory of New Hires, to be adminis8 tered by the Social Security Administration, under

9 agreement with the Office of Child Support Enforce10 ment of the Department of Health and Human

11 Services. Under this program, States are required to

12 develop a reporting system whereby employers must

13 report to their respective States the name, address,

14 and social security number of all newly hired em15 ployees. States must forward the new hire data with16 in 3 days of receipt to the National Directory of

17 New Hires, where the data will be checked against

18 the Federal Case Registry of Child Support Orders

19 to detect overdue child support.

20 (3) The Personal Responsibility and Work Op21 portunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 does not limit

22 how long employee data may remain in the National

23 Directory of New Hires, and the Office of Child

24 Support Enforcement of the Department of Health

25 and Human Services has not developed any such
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1 limits as of September 15, 1997. In addition to the

2 Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Depart3 ment of Health and Human Services and the Social

4 Security Administration, the Department of the

5 Treasury has access to the directory and the Sec6 retary of Health and Human Services has the dis7 cretion to provide researchers access to the direc8 tory.

9 (4) The overwhelming majority of newly hired

10 individuals do not have child support orders entered

11 against them, yet their personal data can be viewed

12 by Federal agencies without such individuals’ knowl13 edge or consent.

14 (5) Recent disclosures of unauthorized viewing

15 of taxpayer information by officials of the Internal

16 Revenue Service highlight the potential for abuse of

17 such information and the need for safeguarding

18 measures.

19 (6) Several States with new hire reporting pro20 grams have time limits on data retention ranging

21 from 6 to 9 months.

22 (7) A 6-month limit on retention of new hire

23 data in the National Directory of New Hires, from

24 the date such data is entered, would allow sufficient

25 time to check the data against the Federal Case
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1 Registry of Child Support Orders and to initiate ac2 tion against individuals with overdue child support,

3 and would reduce the potential for abuse and misuse

4 of the data.

5 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to safe6 guard personal information concerning employees who do

7 not have child support orders pending against them by

8 placing a reasonable time limit on the retention of new

9 hire data reported to the National Directory of New Hires.

10 SEC. 3. LIMIT ON NEW HIRE DATA RETENTION.

11 (a) REQUIREMENT TO DELETE DATA AFTER 6

12 MONTHS.—Section 453(i)(2) of the Social Security Act

13 (42 U.S.C. 653(i)(2)) is amended by adding at the end

14 the following: ‘‘Information entered into such database

15 shall be deleted 6 months after the date of entry.’’.

16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by

17 subsection (a) shall take effect as if included in the enact18 ment of title III of the Personal Responsibility and Work

19 Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–

20 193; 110 Stat. 2198).

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