Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, the Social Security number really is a key to identity theft, and thieves have had a field day with these Social Security numbers and the identity theft and the invasion of privacy that occurs. A full 10 years ago, I authored a measure here in the House to remove this information from the Medicare card. The next session, finally in 2010, we were able to pass that through the House with the help of Representative Johnson. It was a bipartisan initiative. Then the Senate didn't pass it. When Republicans took over control of the House, Mr. Johnson appropriately took the lead on that legislation, and he worked at it for a while, and, finally, in 2015, he got it passed to remove the Social Security number from the Medicare card. As Representative Johnson knows, finally, now, 10 years from when we started in June of this year, it looks like seniors will begin getting their Medicare cards without the Social Security number on it, to protect their privacy and to avoid the exploitation that has occurred. To his credit, Mr. Marchant has identified another group of very vulnerable individuals: children. Carnegie Mellon did a study that reported that nearly 10 percent of America's children have had their identity already stolen, and the Social Security number is a factor in that. That is significantly higher than it is for adults, some 51 times higher, according to the Carnegie Mellon study.…”