I

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 591

To require the Commissioner of Social Security and the Secretary of the

Treasury to develop and implement measures to eliminate and prevent

mismatching of earnings information maintained by the Social Security

Administration and the Internal Revenue Service resulting in underpayment of social security benefits.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 5, 1997

Mr. BROWN of California (for himself, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. DELLUMS, Mr.

ENGEL, Mr. EVANS, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mr. FILNER, Mr. FRANK of

Massachusetts, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mrs. MEEK of Florida, Mrs. MINK of Hawaii, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. POMEROY, Mr. SANDERS, Mr.

TORRES, and Mr. WAXMAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To require the Commissioner of Social Security and the

Secretary of the Treasury to develop and implement

measures to eliminate and prevent mismatching of earnings information maintained by the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service resulting

in underpayment of social security benefits.

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Social Security Bene3 fits Protection and Restoration Act of 1997’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

5 (a) INITIAL FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the fol6 lowing:

7 (1) Over the last 5 decades, billions of dollars

8 in social security taxes have been paid by American

9 workers but have not been credited to their social se10 curity earnings records. When the Social Security

11 Administration is not able to match information on

12 annual earnings reports to existing workers’ earn13 ings records, the amount of such earnings reported

14 are credited by the Administration in a ‘‘suspense

15 file’’ of uncredited earnings.

16 (2) Largely due to the inflexible matching pol17 icy of the Social Security Administration and an un18 acceptable number of errors made by employers on

19 annual earnings reports submitted to the Adminis20 tration, the suspense file has accumulated approxi21 mately 200,000,000 individual earnings reports to22 taling approximately $200,000,000,000 in earnings.

23 These numbers continue to grow.

24 (3) Because earnings are used to determine an

25 individual’s eligibility and benefit amount,

26 uncredited earnings can affect social security benefit
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1 payments. Current beneficiaries have lost, and con2 tinue to lose, benefits because of the failure of the

3 Social Security Administration to correctly credit

4 their earnings. This has the practical effect of deny5 ing millions of hard-working Americans up to hun6 dreds of dollars on their monthly retirement or dis7 ability benefits.

8 (b) FURTHER FINDINGS.—The Congress further

9 finds the following:

10 (1) Current and future retirees should receive

11 the full social security benefits to which they are en12 titled.

13 (2) The impact of uncredited earnings on social

14 security beneficiaries has not been adequately deter15 mined. An examination of the practical effects of

16 uncredited earnings on individuals’ benefits should

17 be conducted, in order that beneficiaries who are due

18 higher benefits or retroactive payments can be com19 pensated accordingly.

20 (c) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ensure

21 that the Social Security Administration, together with the

22 Secretary of the Treasury, will take prompt action to—

23 (1) determine and implement an effective proce24 dure to reconcile the wage reports currently in the

25 suspense file to the rightful beneficiaries, and
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1 (2) put in place a system that will prevent fur2 ther mismatches.

3 SEC. 3. STUDY.

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Commissioner of Social Secu5 rity and the Secretary of the Treasury shall jointly under6 take, as soon as practicable after the date of the enact7 ment of this Act, a thorough study with respect to the

8 inability of the Social Security Administration to provide

9 for American workers their full social security benefits by

10 reason of insufficiency of information held by the Adminis11 tration necessary for correctly identifying accounts for the

12 earnings of such workers.

13 (b) MATTERS TO BE STUDIED.—The Commissioner

14 and the Secretary, in their study under this section, shall

15 address, analyze, and report specifically on the following

16 matters:

17 (1) the extent of, and the reasons for, the in18 ability of the Social Security Administration to

19 maintain accurate and current records of every

20 worker’s annual earnings sufficient for determining

21 eligibility for, and the correct amount of, monthly in22 surance benefits under title II of the Social Security

23 Act,
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1 (2) proposals for an effective procedure for

2 eliminating the current backlog of uncredited earn3 ings in the suspense file maintained by the Social

4 Security Administration,

5 (3) proposals for an effective procedure for re6 solving new discrepancies which would result in new

7 uncredited earnings, and

8 (4) any additional resources which the Social

9 Security Administration would require to carry out

10 effective procedures described in paragraphs (2) and

11 (3).

12 SEC. 4. REMEDIAL MEASURES.

13 Pursuant to the study carried out under section 3,

14 the Commissioner of Social Security and the Secretary of

15 the Treasury shall promptly—

16 (1) devise and implement a procedure for elimi17 nating, in accordance with an established time18 phased schedule, the backlog of uncredited earnings

19 currently contained in the suspense file maintained

20 by the Administration, and

21 (2) devise and implement a procedure for re22 solving new discrepancies which would prevent the

23 addition of future uncredited earnings in the sus24 pense file.
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1 SEC. 5. REPORT.

2 The Commissioner of Social Security and the Sec3 retary of the Treasury shall submit to the Committee on

4 Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the

5 Committee on Finance of the Senate, not later than 180

6 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, a report

7 of the findings of the study conducted under section 3 and

8 the progress made in meeting the requirements of section

9 4. Such report shall include any recommendations for fur10 ther legislative action the Commissioner and the Secretary

11 consider appropriate.

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