WASHINGTON - Today, the United States House of Representatives unanimously passed bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-21). H.R. 3779, the Social Security Fraud Prevention Act of 2016.

After learning about the issue from a constituent, Congressman Valadao introduced H.R. 3779 last fall with the support of lead Democrat cosponsor Congressman Eric Swalwell (CA-15). The bill aims to protect Americans, especially children, veterans, and senior citizens from becoming victims of identity theft.

Following passage of the bill, Congressman Valadao stated, “Social Security was established to provide older Americans financial security during their retirement years, not jeopardize that security by negligently handling someone’s personal information." He continued, "Even more concerning is that the problem is not exclusive to the Social Security Administration, but has spread across every executive department of our government impacting seniors, veterans, and children."

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. It threatens the financial security of millions of Americans, as well the economic stability of the United States as a whole. In fact, every two seconds, another American becomes a victim of identity fraud. Even worse, children, veterans, and seniors are especially vulnerable to such attacks.

Despite these alarming statistics, there is a high prevalence of unnecessarily printed Social Security numbers on documents issued by the federal government.

H.R. 3779, the Social Security Fraud Prevention Act of 2016 addresses concerns regarding the prevalence of Social Security Numbers on government-issued documents. Specifically, the legislation aims to specify the circumstances under which inclusion of full SSNs is necessary and otherwise partially redact or completely remove the SSN from government-issued documents.

Congressman David G. Valadao (R-CA-21) and Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA-15) introduced H.R. 3779, on Wednesday, October 21, 2015. Original cosponsors of the legislation include Representatives Ken Calvert (R-CA), Paul Cook (R-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Walter B. Jones (R-NC), David P. Joyce (R-OH), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Stephen Knight (R-CA), Frank Lucas (R-OK), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Patrick Murphy (D-FL), Richard M. Nolan (D-MN), Edward R. Royce (R-CA), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Juan Vargas (D-CA), David Young (R-IA).

H.R. 3779 was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday, September 26, 2016. The text of the bill can be found here and a legislative summary of the bill can be found here.

Congressman David G. Valadao represents the 21^st Congressional District, which includes Kings County and portions of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern Counties.

###