Darlene Hooley: “the Rules Committee Wednesday was presented with a tremendous number of amendments to the Homeland Security Legislation.…”

“the Rules Committee Wednesday was presented with a tremendous number of amendments to the Homeland Security Legislation. Their task was certainly a monumental one. However, the Committee did not allow my amendment to be considered on the floor or be included in the Manager's amendment, which I believe to be an erroneous decision. As such, I have converted that amendment into a bill, the ``Secure Identity Protection Act of 2002.'' This bill would effectively prevent the theft of Social Security numbers of the deceased by requiring the White House to issue a report on the advisability of requiring State DMVs to subscribe to the Social Security Administration's Death Master File. The report, in turn, must be submitted to Congress. This bill is not a mandate. It is not a proposal to create a national ID card, nor is it an effort to ban Social Security Numbers from general usage. Rather, it is a common sense proposal that would greatly benefit our national security, as well as prevent billions of dollars in fraudulent charges by identity thieves. Identity theft is not just a financial crime, it is a threat to our national security. An individual suspected of training four of the September 11 terrorists used the Social Security number of a New Jersey woman who died in 1991 to establish his identity in the U.S. Untold numbers of other terrorists may have done the same.”