I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2337

To repeal section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant

Responsibility Act of 1996.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 24, 1999

Mr. PAUL (for himself, Mr. BARR of Georgia, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr.

HOSTETTLER, Mr. MEEKS of New York, and Mr. CAMPBELL) introduced

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government

Reform

A BILL

To repeal section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform

and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

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

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 The Congress makes the following findings:

5 (1) Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Re6 form and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (re7 ferred to in this Act as ‘‘IIRIRA’’) requires States

8 to collect, certify, and display social security account

9 numbers on State-issued driver’s licenses and con-
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1 form with federally mandated uniform features for

2 driver’s licenses.

3 (2) Section 656 of IIRIRA threatens the pri4 vacy of all people living in the United States.

5 (3) Section 656 of IIRIRA expands the use and

6 dissemination of the social security account number.

7 (4) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires Federal

8 agencies to accept only documents that meet the

9 standards laid out in that section, thus creating a de

10 facto national identification card.

11 (5) Section 656 of IIRIRA preempts State au12 thority over the issuance of State driver’s licenses,

13 violating the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of

14 1994 (referred to in this Act as ‘‘UMRA’’).

15 (6) The actual costs of compliance with section

16 656 far exceed the $100,000,000 threshold estab17 lished by UMRA.

18 (7) Section 656 of IIRIRA preempts the tradi19 tional State function of issuing driver’s licenses and

20 places it in the hands of officials of the National

21 Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

22 (8) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires States to

23 conform their driver’s licenses and other identity

24 documents to a detailed Federal standard.
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1 (9) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires that each

2 license contain either in visual or electronic form the

3 individual’s social security account number unless

4 the State goes through the burdensome and invasive

5 procedures to check each individual’s identity with

6 the Social Security Administration.

7 (10) Section 656 of IIRIRA will greatly expand

8 the dissemination and misuse of the social security

9 account number at a time when the Congress, the

10 States, and the public are actually taking measures

11 to reduce the use of social security numbers as driv12 ers’ identity numbers.

13 (11) Only 7 States require the social security

14 account number to be displayed on driver’s licenses.

15 (12) 9 States have repealed their requirement

16 that driver’s licenses display the social security ac17 count number since 1992.

18 (13) The 10th amendment to the Constitution

19 deprives the Federal Government of all constitu20 tional authority to establish standards for State

21 driver’s licenses, or any other sort of national identi22 fication card.

23 (14) On June 17, 1998, the National Highway

24 Traffic Safety Administration promulgated in the

25 Federal Register (23 C.F.R. part 1331) a proposed
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1 rule (entitled ‘‘State-Issued Driver’s Licenses and

2 Comparable Identification Documents; Proposed

3 Rule’’) that provides the basis for a national identi4 fication card.

5 (15) On October 20, 1998, the House of Rep6 resentatives voted 333 to 95 to pass the Omnibus

7 Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appro8 priations Act, 1999. This Act contains a provision

9 which prohibits the National Highway Traffic Safety

10 Administration from issuing a final rule on national

11 identification cards, as required under section 656 of

12 IIRIRA.

13 SEC. 2. REPEAL OF SECTION 656 OF IIRIRA.

14 Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and

15 Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 301 note)

16 is repealed.

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