Social Security Integrity Act of 2019

Social Security Integrity Act of 2019

This bill directs the Social Security Administration (SSA) to implement the recommendations of the Office of the Inspector General of the SSA related to annotating death information on records of individuals who would have exceeded maximum reasonable life expectancies. The bill also provides for a one-time payment of $100 to each individual who attains 100 years of age.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3601 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3601

  To direct the Commissioner of Social Security to implement certain 
         recordkeeping recommendations, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 28, 2019

 Mr. King of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                    the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To direct the Commissioner of Social Security to implement certain 
         recordkeeping recommendations, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Social Security Integrity Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Individuals can commit various types of fraud against 
        the Government by reporting earnings under deceased 
        individuals' Social Security Numbers (SSNs).
            (2) Various Federal entities rely on the Social Security 
        Administration's (SSA) death information to detect unreported 
        deaths and verify the accuracy of reported deaths.
            (3) The Numident is the SSA's computer database file on all 
        who have applied for a Social Security number. The Office of 
        the Inspector General (OIG) of the SSA conducted an audit and 
        determined that the SSA did not have controls in place to 
        annotate death information on the Numident records of 
        numberholders who exceeded maximum reasonable life expectancies 
        and were likely deceased.
            (4) The OIG identified 34 cases in which it appeared that 
        the deceased numberholder's name and Social Security Number 
        (SSN) had been misused. In one instance an employer reported 
        paying wages to someone from 2008 through 2012 using a 
        numberholder's name and SSN that had been born in 1886. SSA 
        payment records indicated that the numberholder died in January 
        1965, but the SSA did not record the numberholder's death on 
        the Numident. SSA continued paying benefits to the 
        numberholder's widow until her death in February 1973. SSA's 
        Master Earning File (MEF) contained no reported earnings 
        information for this numberholder from 1956 through 2007.
            (5) The OIG determined that thousands of the SSNs could 
        have been used to commit identity fraud. For tax years 2006 
        through 2011, SSA received reports that individuals using 
        66,920 SSNs had approximately $3.1 billion in wages, tips, and 
        self-employment income. SSA transferred the earnings to the 
        Earnings Suspense File because the employees' or self-employed 
        individuals' names on the earnings reports did not match the 
        numberholders' names.
            (6) During calendar years 2008 through 2011, employers made 
        4,024 E-Verify inquiries using 3,873 SSNs belonging to 
        numberholders born before June 16, 1901. According to the OIG, 
        these inquiries indicate individuals' attempts to use the SSNs 
        to apply for work.
            (7) The OIG determined that resolving these discrepancies 
        will improve the accuracy and completeness of the Death Master 
        File and help prevent future misuse of these SSNs.
            (8) The American taxpayer deserves to have the surety of 
        knowing that every agency and department within the Federal 
        Government takes the prudent actions necessary to prevent 
        future fraud and waste of hard-earned dollars.
            (9) In 2015, the OIG identified approximately 6.5 million 
        numberholders age 112 or older who did not have death 
        information on the Numident.
            (10) Of the 6.5 million cases OIG identified, based on 
        initial review, SSA believed approximately 1.5 million of these 
        individuals were deceased. After further in-depth analysis, SSA 
        posted death information to records for only those cases that 
        passed complex identity matching protocols, and where the most 
        current information indicated the individuals are in fact 
        deceased.
            (11) For the remaining 5 million cases, the SSA reports 
        that it does not have sufficient or reliable evidence that 
        these individuals are deceased. However, the SSA also notes 
        that the individuals have never received payments from the SSA; 
        the records are decades old, and are the result of error-prone 
        paper reporting processes; it is possible that, decades ago, 
        SSA incorrectly recorded some dates of birth and that some 
        individuals are much younger than current records indicate; and 
        it would be imprudent to presume death in order to add these 
        cases to the DMF because doing so could result in the 
        inappropriate release of living individuals' personally 
        identifiable information--an action that has far-reaching and 
        adverse consequences for these individuals.
            (12) In line with the OIG's recommendations, the SSA should 
        take proactive action to fully protect the American taxpayer by 
        ensuring that there are comprehensive controls in place to 
        annotate death information on the Numident records of 
        numberholders who exceeded maximum reasonable life 
        expectancies.

SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF OIG RECOMMENDATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 3 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of Social Security shall 
implement all of the recommendations described in the memorandum from 
the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security 
Administration entitled ``Numberholders Age 112 or Older Who Did Not 
Have a Death Entry on the Numident (A-06-14-34030)'' and dated March 4, 
2015.
    (b) Additional Payment to Individuals Attaining 100 Years of Age.--
The Commissioner of Social Security shall make a one-time payment in 
the amount of $100 to each individual who, according to the records of 
the Commissioner of Social Security, attains 100 years of age after the 
date of enactment of this Act and applies for such payment.
    (c) Report.--Not later than December 31 of each calendar year that 
begins after the date of the enactment of this Act and ends before the 
date that is 3 years after such date of enactment, the Commissioner 
shall submit to the Congress a report on the progress made toward 
implementation of each of the recommendations described in the 
memorandum specified in subsection (a), the methods used to implement 
such recommendations, the amount of funds expended and any other 
resources utilized to implement such recommendations, and the projected 
date of full implementation.
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