I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 191

To improve the integrity of the Social Security card and to provide for

criminal penalties for fraud and related activity involving work authorization documents for purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 6, 1999

Mr. MCCOLLUM (for himself, Mr. BEREUTER, Mr. BILBRAY, Mr. CAMPBELL,

Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. HORN, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr.

SHAYS, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. STARK, and Mr. STENHOLM) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and

in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of

such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To improve the integrity of the Social Security card and

to provide for criminal penalties for fraud and related

activity involving work authorization documents for purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

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

3 SECTION 1. PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE SOCIAL

4 SECURITY ACCOUNT NUMBER CARD.

5 (a) IMPROVEMENTS TO CARD.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of carrying out

2 section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality

3 Act, the Commissioner of Social Security (in this

4 section referred to as the ‘‘Commissioner’’) shall

5 make such improvements to the physical design,

6 technical specifications, and materials of the social

7 security account number card as are necessary to

8 ensure that it is a genuine official document and

9 that it offers the best possible security against coun10 terfeiting, forgery, alteration, and misuse.

11 (2) PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.—In making

12 the improvements required in paragraph (1), the

13 Commissioner shall—

14 (A) make the card as secure against coun15 terfeiting as the 100 dollar Federal Reserve

16 note, with a rate of counterfeit detection com17 parable to the 100 dollar Federal Reserve note,

18 and

19 (B) make the card as secure against fraud20 ulent use as a United States passport.

21 (3) REFERENCE.—In this section, the term ‘‘se22 cured social security account number card’’ means a

23 social security account number card issued in ac24 cordance with the requirements of this subsection.
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1 (4) EFFECTIVE DATE.—All social security ac2 count number cards issued after January 1, 2002,

3 whether new or replacement, shall be secured social

4 security account number cards.

5 (b) USE FOR EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION.—Begin6 ning on January 1, 2008, a document described in section

7 274A(b)(1)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act is

8 a secured social security account number card (other than

9 such a card which specifies on the face that the issuance

10 of the card does not authorize employment in the United

11 States).

12 (c) NOT A NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION CARD.—

13 Cards issued pursuant to this section shall not be required

14 to be carried upon one’s person, and nothing in this sec15 tion shall be construed as authorizing the establishment

16 of a national identification card.

17 (d) NO NEW DATABASES.—Nothing in this section

18 shall be construed as authorizing the establishment of any

19 new databases.

20 (e) EDUCATION CAMPAIGN.—The Commissioner of

21 Immigration and Naturalization, in consultation with the

22 Commissioner of Social Security, shall conduct a com23 prehensive campaign to educate employers about the secu24 rity features of the secured social security card and how
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1 to detect counterfeit or fraudulently used social security

2 account number cards.

3 (f) ANNUAL REPORTS.—The Commissioner of Social

4 Security shall submit to Congress by July 1 of each year

5 a report on—

6 (1) the progress and status of developing a se7 cured social security account number card under this

8 section,

9 (2) the incidence of counterfeit production and

10 fraudulent use of social security account number

11 cards, and

12 (3) the steps being taken to detect and prevent

13 such counterfeiting and fraud.

14 (g) GAO ANNUAL AUDITS.—The Comptroller Gen15 eral shall perform an annual audit, the results of which

16 are to be presented to the Congress by January 1 of each

17 year, on the performance of the Social Security Adminis18 tration in meeting the requirements in subsection (a).

19 (h) EXPENSES.—No costs incurred in developing and

20 issuing cards under this section that are above the costs

21 that would have been incurred for cards issued in the ab22 sence of this section shall be paid for out of any Trust

23 Fund established under the Social Security Act. There are

24 authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be nec25 essary to carry out this section.
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1 SEC. 2. CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR FRAUD AND RELATED

2 ACTIVITY WITH WORK AUTHORIZATION

3 DOCUMENTS.

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1028 of title 18, United

5 States Code, is amended—

6 (1) in subsection (a)—

7 (A) in paragraphs (1) and (2) by striking

8 ‘‘an identification document or a false identi9 fication document’’ each place it appears and

10 inserting ‘‘an identification document, false

11 identification document, work authorization

12 document, or false work authorization docu13 ment’’;

14 (B) in paragraph (3) by striking ‘‘identi15 fication documents (other than those issued

16 lawfully for the use of the possessor) or false

17 identification documents’’ and inserting ‘‘identi18 fication or work authorization documents (other

19 than those issued lawfully for the use of the

20 possessor) or false identification or work au21 thorization documents’’;

22 (C) in paragraph (4) by striking ‘‘an iden23 tification document (other than one issued law24 fully for the use of the possessor) or a false

25 identification document’’ and inserting ‘‘an

26 identification or work authorization document
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1 (other than one issued lawfully for the use of

2 the possessor) or a false identification or work

3 authorization document’’;

4 (D) in paragraph (5) by inserting ‘‘or in

5 the production of a false work authorization

6 document’’ after ‘‘false identification docu7 ment’’; and

8 (E) in paragraph (6) by inserting ‘‘or work

9 authorization document’’ after ‘‘identification

10 document’’ each place it appears;

11 (2) in subsection (b)(1)—

12 (A) by striking ‘‘an identification docu13 ment or false identification document’’ in sub14 paragraph (A) and inserting ‘‘an identification

15 document, false identification document, work

16 authorization document, or false work author17 ization document’’;

18 (B) in subparagraph (A)—

19 (i) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of

20 clause (i);

21 (ii) by inserting ‘‘or’’ at the end of

22 clause (ii); and

23 (iii) by inserting the following new

24 clause after clause (ii):
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1 ‘‘(iii) a work authorization docu2 ment;’’; and

3 (C) by striking ‘‘identification documents

4 or false identification documents’’ in subpara5 graph (B) and inserting ‘‘identification docu6 ments, false identification documents, work au7 thorization documents, or false work authoriza8 tion documents’’;

9 (3) in subsection (b)(2)(A) by striking ‘‘a false

10 identification document;’’ and inserting ‘‘a false

11 identification document, work authorization docu12 ment, or false work authorization document;’’;

13 (4) in subsection (c)—

14 (A) by striking ‘‘identification document or

15 false identification document’’ each place it ap16 pears in paragraph (1) and inserting ‘‘identi17 fication document, false identification docu18 ment, work authorization document, or false

19 work authorization document’’; and

20 (B) by adding ‘‘work authorization docu21 ment, false work authorization document,’’ after

22 ‘‘false identification document,’’ in paragraph

23 (3); and

24 (5) in subsection (d)—
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1 (A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para2 graph (5);

3 (B) by striking the period at the end of

4 paragraph (6) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

5 (C) by inserting after paragraph (6) the

6 following new paragraph:

7 ‘‘(7) the term ‘work authorization document’

8 means any document described in section

9 274A(b)(1)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality

10 Act.’’.

11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—

12 (1) IDENTITY THEFT AND ASSUMPTION DETER13 RENCE ACT.—Section 4(b)(2) of the Identity Theft

14 and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 (Public

15 Law 105–318; 112 Stat. 3010) is amended by strik16 ing ‘‘or false identification documents’’ and inserting

17 ‘‘false identification documents, work authorization

18 documents, or false work authorization documents’’.

19 (2) HEADING.—The heading for section 1028

20 of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read

21 as follows:
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1 ‘‘§ 1028. Fraud and related activity in connection

2 with identification and work authoriza3 tion documents and information’’

4 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The item relating to

5 section 1028 in the table of sections at the beginning of

6 chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended

7 to read as follows:

‘‘1028. Fraud and related activity in connection with identification and work authorization documents and information.’’.

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