I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1731
To amend title 18, United States Code, to establish penalties for aggravated 
identity theft, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 10, 2003
Mr. CARTER (for himself and Mr. SCHIFF) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to establish penalties 
for aggravated identity theft, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Identity Theft Penalty 
Enhancement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended by adding after section 1028, the 
following:
‘‘§ 1028A. Aggravated identity theft 
‘‘(a) OFFENSES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Whoever, during and in re-
lation to any felony violation enumerated in sub-
section (c), knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, 
without lawful authority, a means of identification of 
another person shall, in addition to the punishment 
provided for such felony, be sentenced to a term of 
imprisonment of 2 years. 
‘‘(2) TERRORISM OFFENSE.—Whoever, during 
and in relation to any felony violation enumerated in 
section 2332b(g)(5)(B), knowingly transfers, pos-
sesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of 
identification of another person shall, in addition to 
the punishment provided for such felony, be sen-
tenced to a term of imprisonment of 5 years. 
‘‘(b) CONSECUTIVE
SENTENCE.—Notwithstanding 
any other provision of law—
‘‘(1) a court shall not place on probation any 
person convicted of a violation of this section; 
‘‘(2) except as provided in paragraph (4), no 
term of imprisonment imposed on a person under 
this section shall run concurrently with any other 
term of imprisonment imposed on the person under 
any other provision of law, including any term of im-
prisonment imposed for the felony during which the
means of identification was transferred, possessed, 
or used; 
‘‘(3) in determining any term of imprisonment 
to be imposed for the felony during which the means 
of identification was transferred, possessed, or used, 
a court shall not in any way reduce the term to be 
imposed for such crime so as to compensate for, or 
otherwise take into account, any separate term of 
imprisonment imposed or to be imposed for a viola-
tion of this section; and 
‘‘(4) a term of imprisonment imposed on a per-
son for a violation of this section may, in the discre-
tion of the court, run concurrently, in whole or in 
part, only with another term of imprisonment that 
is imposed by the court at the same time on that 
person for an additional violation of this section, 
provided that such discretion shall be exercised in 
accordance with any applicable guidelines and policy 
statements issued by the Sentencing Commission 
pursuant to section 994 of title 28. 
‘‘(c) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 
term ‘felony violation enumerated in subsection (c)’ means 
any offense that is a felony violation of—
‘‘(1) section 664 (relating to theft from em-
ployee benefit plans);
‘‘(2) section 911 (relating to false personation 
of citizenship); 
‘‘(3) section 922(a)(6) (relating to false state-
ments in connection with the acquisition of a fire-
arm); 
‘‘(4) any provision contained in this chapter (re-
lating to fraud and false statements), other than this 
section or section 1028(a)(7); 
‘‘(5) any provision contained in chapter 63 (re-
lating to mail, bank, and wire fraud); 
‘‘(6) any provision contained in chapter 69 (re-
lating to nationality and citizenship); 
‘‘(7) any provision contained in chapter 75 (re-
lating to passports and visas); 
‘‘(8) section 523 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley 
Act (15 U.S.C. 6823) (relating to obtaining cus-
tomer information by false pretenses); 
‘‘(9) section 243 or 266 of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1253 and 1306) (relating 
to willfully failing to leave the United States after 
deportation and creating a counterfeit alien registra-
tion card); 
‘‘(10) any provision contained in chapter 8 of 
title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1321 et seq.) (relating to various immigra-
tion offenses); or 
‘‘(11) section 208, 1107(b), or 1128B(a) of the 
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 408, 1307(b), and 
1320a–7b(a)) (relating to false statements relating 
to programs under the Act).’’. 
(b) AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER ANALYSIS.—The table 
of sections for chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, 
is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
1028 the following new item:
‘‘1028A. Aggravated identity theft.’’.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO EXISTING IDENTITY THEFT PRO-
HIBITION. 
Section 1028 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended—
(1) in subsection (a)(7)—
(A) by striking ‘‘transfers’’ and inserting 
‘‘transfers, possesses,’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘abet,’’ and inserting 
‘‘abet, or in connection with,’’; 
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(D), by striking ‘‘trans-
fer’’ and inserting ‘‘transfer, possession,’’; 
(3) in subsection (b)(2), by striking ‘‘three 
years’’ and inserting ‘‘5 years’’; and
(4) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting after ‘‘fa-
cilitate’’ the following: ‘‘an act of domestic terrorism 
(as defined under section 2331(5) of this title) or’’.
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