SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Children 
from Identity Theft Act’’. 
SEC. 2. REDUCING IDENTITY FRAUD. 
(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to re-
duce the prevalence of synthetic identity fraud, which 
disproportionally affects vulnerable populations, such as 
minors and recent immigrants, by facilitating the valida-
tion by permitted entities of fraud protection data, pursu-
ant to electronically received consumer consent, through 
use of a database maintained by the Commissioner. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) 
COMMISSIONER.—The 
term 
‘‘Commis-
sioner’’ means the Commissioner of the Social Secu-
rity Administration. 
(2) FINANCIAL
INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘fi-
nancial institution’’ has the meaning given the term 
in section 509 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 
U.S.C. 6809). 
(3) FRAUD
PROTECTION
DATA.—The term 
‘‘fraud protection data’’ means a combination of the 
following information with respect to an individual: 
(A) The name of the individual (including 
the first name and any family forename or sur-
name of the individual).
(B) The Social Security account number of 
the individual. 
(C) The date of birth (including the 
month, day, and year) of the individual. 
(4) PERMITTED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘permitted 
entity’’ means a financial institution or a service 
provider, subsidiary, affiliate, agent, contractor, or 
assignee of a financial institution. 
(c) EFFICIENCY.— 
(1) RELIANCE
ON
EXISTING
METHODS.—The 
Commissioner shall evaluate the feasibility of mak-
ing modifications to any database that is in exist-
ence as of the date of enactment of this Act or a 
similar resource such that the database or re-
source— 
(A) is reasonably designed to effectuate the 
purpose of this section; and 
(B) meets the requirements of subsection 
(d). 
(2) EXECUTION.—The Commissioner shall es-
tablish a system to carry out subsection (a), in ac-
cordance with section 1106 of the Social Security 
Act. In doing so, the Commissioner shall make the 
modifications necessary to any database that is in 
existence as of the date of enactment of this Act or
similar resource, or develop a database or similar re-
source. 
(d) PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE CONSUMERS.— 
The database or similar resource described in subsection 
(c) shall— 
(1) compare fraud protection data provided in 
an inquiry by a permitted entity against such infor-
mation maintained by the Commissioner in order to 
confirm (or not confirm) the validity of the informa-
tion provided, and in such a manner as to deter 
fraudulent use of the database or similar resource; 
(2) be scalable and accommodate reasonably an-
ticipated volumes of verification requests from per-
mitted entities with commercially reasonable uptime 
and availability; and 
(3) allow permitted entities to submit— 
(A) one or more individual requests elec-
tronically for real-time machine-to-machine (or 
similar functionality) accurate responses; and 
(B) multiple requests electronically, such 
as those provided in a batch format, for accu-
rate electronic responses within a reasonable pe-
riod of time from submission, not to exceed 24 
hours.
(e) CERTIFICATION REQUIRED.—Before providing 
confirmation of fraud protection data to a permitted enti-
ty, the Commissioner shall ensure that the Commissioner 
has a certification from the permitted entity that is dated 
not more than 2 years before the date on which that con-
firmation is provided that includes the following declara-
tions: 
(1) The entity is a permitted entity. 
(2) The entity is in compliance with this sec-
tion. 
(3) The entity is, and will remain, in compli-
ance with its privacy and data security requirements, 
as described in title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley 
Act (15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.) and as required by the 
Commissioner, with respect to information the entity 
receives from the Commissioner pursuant to this sec-
tion. 
(4) The entity will retain sufficient records to 
demonstrate its compliance with its certification and 
this section for a period of not less than 2 years. 
(f) CONSUMER CONSENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law or regulation, a permitted entity 
may submit a request to the database or similar re-
source described in subsection (c) only—
(A) pursuant to the written, including elec-
tronic, consent received by a permitted entity 
from the individual who is the subject of the re-
quest; and 
(B) in connection with any circumstance 
described in section 604 of the Fair Credit Re-
porting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b). 
(2) ELECTRONIC CONSENT REQUIREMENTS.— 
For a permitted entity to use the consent of an indi-
vidual received electronically pursuant to paragraph 
(1)(A), the permitted entity must obtain the individ-
ual’s electronic signature, as defined in section 106 
of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National 
Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. 7006). Permitted entities 
must develop and use an electronic signature process 
in accordance with all Federal laws and require-
ments as designated by the Commissioner. 
(3) EFFECTUATING
ELECTRONIC
CONSENT.— 
No provision of law or requirement, including section 
552a of title 5, United States Code, shall prevent 
the use of electronic consent for purposes of this 
subsection or for use in any other consent based 
verification under the discretion of the Commis-
sioner. 
(g) COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT.—
(1) AUDITS AND MONITORING.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Commissioner— 
(i) shall conduct audits and moni-
toring to— 
(I) ensure proper use by per-
mitted entities of the database or 
similar resource described in sub-
section (c); and 
(II) deter fraud and misuse by 
permitted entities with respect to the 
database or similar resource described 
in subsection (c); and 
(ii) may terminate services for any 
permitted entity that prevents or refuses to 
allow the Commissioner to carry out the 
activities described in clause (i) and may 
terminate or suspend services for any per-
mitted entity as necessary to enforce any 
violation of this section or of any certifi-
cation made under this section. 
(2) ENFORCEMENT.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 
other provision of law, including the matter pre-
ceding paragraph (1) of section 505(a) of the 
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. 6805(a)),
any violation of this section and any certifi-
cation made under this section shall be enforced 
in accordance with paragraphs (1) through (7) 
of such section 505(a) by the agencies described 
in those paragraphs. 
(B) RELEVANT INFORMATION.—Upon dis-
covery by the Commissioner of any violation of 
this section or any certification made under this 
section, the Commissioner shall forward any 
relevant information pertaining to that violation 
to the appropriate agency described in subpara-
graph (A) for evaluation by the agency for pur-
poses of enforcing this section. 
(h) RECOVERY OF COSTS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Amounts obligated to 
carry out this section shall be fully recovered 
from the users of the database or verification 
system by way of advances, reimbursements, 
user fees, or other recoveries as determined by 
the Commissioner. The funds recovered under 
this paragraph shall be deposited as an offset-
ting collection to the account providing appro-
priations for the Social Security Administration,
to be used for the administration of this section 
without fiscal year limitation. 
(B) PRICES FIXED BY COMMISSIONER.— 
The Commissioner shall establish the amount to 
be paid by the users under this paragraph, in-
cluding the costs of any services or work per-
formed, such as any appropriate upgrades, 
maintenance, and associated direct and indirect 
administrative costs, in support of carrying out 
the purposes described in this section, by reim-
bursement or in advance as determined by the 
Commissioner. The amount of such prices shall 
be periodically adjusted by the Commissioner to 
ensure that amounts collected are sufficient to 
fully offset the cost of the administration of this 
section. 
(2) INITIAL
DEVELOPMENT.—The Commis-
sioner shall not begin development of a verification 
system to carry out this section until the Commis-
sioner determines that amounts equal to at least 50 
percent of program start-up costs have been col-
lected under paragraph (1). 
(3) EXISTING RESOURCES.—The Commissioner 
of Social Security may use funds designated for in-
formation technology modernization to carry out this
section, but in all cases shall be fully reimbursed 
under paragraph (1)(A). 
(4) ANNUAL
REPORT.—The Commissioner of 
Social Security shall annually submit to the Com-
mittee on Ways and Means of the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Committee on Finance of the 
Senate a report on the amount of indirect costs to 
the Social Security Administration arising as a re-
sult of the implementation of this section. 
Passed the House of Representatives April 17, 2018. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5192 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Commissioner of Social Security 
to provide confirmation of fraud protection data 
to certain permitted entities, and for other pur-
poses.