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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Re-
form and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (re-
ferred to in this Act as ‘‘IIRIRA’’) requires States
to collect, certify, and display social security account
numbers on State-issued driver’s licenses and con-
form with federally mandated uniform features for
driver’s licenses.
(2) Section 656 of IIRIRA threatens the pri-
vacy of all people living in the United States.
(3) Section 656 of IIRIRA expands the use and
dissemination of the social security account number.
(4) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires Federal
agencies to accept only documents that meet the
standards laid out in that section, thus creating a de
facto national identification card.
(5) Section 656 of IIRIRA preempts State au-
thority over the issuance of State driver’s licenses,
violating the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of
1994 (referred to in this Act as ‘‘UMRA’’).
(6) The actual costs of compliance with section
656 far exceed the $100,000,000 threshold estab-
lished by UMRA.
(7) Section 656 of IIRIRA preempts the tradi-
tional State function of issuing driver’s licenses and
places it in the hands of officials of the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
(8) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires States to
conform their driver’s licenses and other identity
documents to a detailed Federal standard.
(9) Section 656 of IIRIRA requires that each
license contain either in visual or electronic form the
individual’s social security account number unless
the State goes through the burdensome and invasive
procedures to check each individual’s identity with
the Social Security Administration.
(10) Section 656 of IIRIRA will greatly expand
the dissemination and misuse of the social security
account number at a time when the Congress, the
States, and the public are actually taking measures
to reduce the use of social security numbers as driv-
ers’ identity numbers.
(11) Only 7 States require the social security
account number to be displayed on driver’s licenses.
(12) 9 States have repealed their requirement
that driver’s licenses display the social security ac-
count number since 1992.
(13) The 10th amendment to the Constitution
deprives the Federal Government of all constitu-
tional authority to establish standards for State
driver’s licenses, or any other sort of national identi-
fication card.
(14) On June 17, 1998, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration promulgated in the
Federal Register (23 C.F.R. part 1331) a proposed
rule (entitled ‘‘State-Issued Driver’s Licenses and
Comparable Identification Documents; Proposed
Rule’’) that provides the basis for a national identi-
fication card.
(15) On October 20, 1998, the House of Rep-
resentatives voted 333 to 95 to pass the Omnibus
Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appro-
priations Act, 1999. This Act contains a provision
which prohibits the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration from issuing a final rule on national
identification cards, as required under section 656 of
IIRIRA.
SEC. 2. REPEAL OF SECTION 656 OF IIRIRA.
Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 301 note)
is repealed.
Æ