Alan Simpson: “So with respect to birth certificates, the bill already requires, the bill we are debating, that as of October 1, 1997…”

“So with respect to birth certificates, the bill already requires, the bill we are debating, that as of October 1, 1997 no Federal agency--and no State agency that issues driver's licenses or ID documents--may accept for any official purpose a copy of a birth certificate unless it is issued by a State or local government rather than a hospital or nongovernmental entity, and it conforms to Federal standards after consultation with the State vital records officials. The standards would affect only the form of copies, not the original records kept in the State agencies. The standards would provide for improvements that would make the copies more resistant to counterfeiting and tampering and duplicating for fraudulent purposes. An example is the use of safety paper, which is difficult to satisfactorily copy or alter. There is no requirement in this bill that all States issue birth certificate copies in the same form, but in response to concerns that some have expressed the amendment I now propose explicitly to require that the implementing regs not mandate that all States use the single form for birth certificate copies and require the regs to accommodate differences among the States in how birth records are kept and how copies are produced.”