Wayne Allard: “I will be introducing a piece of legislation today which is a bill to cut at the heart of a rampant problem in this…”

“I will be introducing a piece of legislation today which is a bill to cut at the heart of a rampant problem in this country; that is, identity theft. Last month, a bipartisan group of Senators and I met with Secretary Chertoff on this very issue. Secretary Chertoff explained that under current law, Government agencies are prevented from sharing information with one another that, if shared, could expose cases of identity theft. My bill tears down the wall that prevents the sharing of existing information among Government agencies. It permits the Commissioner of Social Security to secure information with the Secretary of Homeland Security where such information is likely to assist in discovering identity theft, Social Security number misuse, or violations of immigration law. Specifically, it requires the Commissioner to inform the Secretary of Homeland Security upon discovery of a Social Security account number being used with multiple names or where an individual has more than one person reporting earnings for him or her during a single tax year. It seems logical that we would already be doing this, but we are not. In the meantime, identity theft is plaguing innocent victims all across the country.”