Privacy Act of 1974; Report of New Routine Use

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

Privacy Act of 1974; Report of New Routine Use

AGENCY: Social Security Administration.

ACTION: New routine use.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(e) (4) and

(11)), we are issuing public notice of our intent to establish a new

routine use of information maintained in the Privacy Act system of

records entitled Master Files of Social Security Number (SSN) Holders

and SSN Applications, SSA/OSR, 09-60-0058. (For convenience, we will

refer to the system as the Enumeration System.) The proposed routine

use provides for disclosure of SSN and citizenship information to

employers in connection with a pilot program to verify the employment

authorization of newly-hired employees.

We invite public comments on this publication.

DATES: We filed a report of an altered systems of records--new routine

use with the Chairman, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of

the House of Representatives, the Chairman, Committee on Governmental

Affairs of the Senate, and the Administrator, Office of Information and

Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget on June 4, 1996.

The routine use will become effective as proposed, without further

notice on July 29, 1996, unless we receive comments on or before that

date that would result in a contrary determination.

ADDRESSES: Interested individuals may comment on this publication by

writing to the SSA Privacy Officer, Social Security Administration,

Room 3-A-6 Operations Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore,

Maryland 21235. Comments may be faxed to (410) 966-0869 or sent to

internet address [email protected]. All comments received will be

available for public inspection at that address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Willie J. Polk, Chief,

Confidentiality and Disclosure Branch, Office of Disclosure Policy,

Social Security Administration, 3-D-1 Operations Building, 6401

Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235, telephone 410-965-1753.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Discussion of Proposed Routine Use

On February 7, 1995, President Clinton announced that SSA, in

partnership with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), will

conduct a pilot project to verify SSNs and employment authorization for

newly-hired employees.

To work in the United States (U.S.), a person must be a U.S.

citizen or an alien lawfully admitted to the country and authorized to

work. Employers are currently required to view documents from all

newly-hired employees to verify their identities and their

authorization to work in the U.S. That process has been cumbersome for

employers and is generally viewed as ineffective at identifying

unauthorized workers. It has also been found to provide an opportunity

for discrimination against people who look or sound foreign.

The Commission on Immigration Reform (also known as the Jordan

Commission) released an interim report to the Congress in September

1994 that proposed a computer registry based on SSA and INS data that

employers could check to determine if a newly-hired employee is

authorized to work. The Commission recommended that the President

immediately pilot the registry in the five States with the highest

levels of illegal immigration and several less affected States. SSA and

INS estimate it would take at least 5 years after the enactment of

legislation to set up the joint computer registry proposed by the

Jordan Commission. The President has authorized SSA and INS to develop

pilot projects to test the effectiveness of some of the concepts

embodied in the computer registry proposal, and to test the technical

feasibility of matching data from the two agencies' databases.

The focus of the current pilot project would involve a two-step

process using existing SSA and INS data bases. Current plans call for

selected volunteer employers to provide SSA with a newly-hired

employee's SSN, name and date of birth. SSA would match that

information against the Enumeration System data base. If the

identifying information furnished by the employer does not match the

data in the Enumeration System, SSA would so inform the employer. If

there is a match, SSA would also check for citizenship/alien status

coding. If the Enumeration System indicates that the employee is a U.S.

citizen, SSA's response would

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convey this information and no further inquiries would be necessary. If

the Enumeration System indicates that the employee was an alien at the

time he or she last applied for a social security card, SSA would

advise the employer to check with INS to determine whether the employee

is authorized to work.

To comply with the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) when disclosing

information to the employers participating in the pilot, we are

proposing to establish the following routine use:

In connection with a pilot program, conducted with the

Immigration and Naturalization Service under 8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)(4) to

test methods of verifying that individuals are authorized to work in

the United States, the Social Security Administration will inform an

employer participating in such pilot program that the identifying

data (Social Security number, name and date of birth) furnished by

an employer concerning a particular employee match, or do not match,

the data maintained in this system of records, and when there is

such a match, that information in this system of records indicates

that the employee is, or is not, a citizen of the United States.

B. Compatibility of Proposed Routine Use

We are proposing the routine use discussed above in accordance with

the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(a)(7), (b)(3), and (e) (4) and (11)) and

our disclosure regulation (20 CFR part 401). The Privacy Act permits us

to disclose information about individuals without their consents for a

routine use, i.e., where the information will be used for a purpose

that is compatible with the purpose for which we collected the

information. The disclosures that will be made under the proposed

routine use meet the compatibility requirements in the Privacy Act and

the regulation as discussed below.

Under 8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)(1), the Immigration and Nationality Act

provides that it is unlawful for a person or other entity to hire, or

to recruit or refer for a fee, for employment in the U.S. an individual

without verifying that the individual is authorized to work in the U.S.

Among the documents that can be used to verify the individual's

authorization to work in the U.S., as discussed in 8 U.S.C.

1324a(b)(1), is the SSN card ``(other than such a card which specifies

on the face that the issuance of the card does not authorize employment

in the United States).'' Thus, the SSN and SSN card have a major role

in the current process for verification of an employee's authorization

to work in the U.S. Further, 8 U.S.C. 1324a(d) allows the President to

consider the suitability of existing Federal identification systems for

use in determining employment authorization and to undertake

demonstration projects, such as the pilot project described above, that

test the usefulness of such systems for improving employment

verification. SSA's Enumeration System is such a Federal identification

system. This statutory authority has been invoked with respect to the

pilot project described above. Consequently, with respect to the pilot

project, 8 U.S.C. 1324a(d) establishes employment authorization

verification as one of the purposes for which SSA collects and

maintains information in its Enumeration System. Use of that

information by employers participating in that pilot project to verify

authorization to work in the U.S. clearly serves that purpose.

In addition, sections 205(c)(2) and 208(a)(7) and (8) of the Social

Security Act (the Act) also support a finding of compatibility. Under

section 205(c)(2)(A) of the Act, SSA is required to establish and

maintain records of the amounts of wages paid to individuals and of the

periods in which such wages were paid. In performing these duties, SSA

is required by section 205(c)(2)(B)(i)(I) of the Act to arrange for the

issuance of SSNs to certain groups, including aliens lawfully admitted

to the U.S. for permanent residence or under other authority to work in

the U.S. Section 205(c)(2)(B)(ii) of the Act provides that SSA must

require all applicants for SSNs to furnish evidence to establish the

age, citizenship, or alien status, and true identity of such

applicants, and to determine which (if any) SSN has previously been

assigned to such individual. This provision was enacted to address,

among other things, concerns about use of SSNs by aliens entering the

U.S. illegally and work in the U.S. by aliens who are not authorized to

do so. Further, section 208(a)(7)(B) and (a)(8) of the Act provides

that any individual who, with intent to deceive for any purpose,

falsely represents that a particular SSN was assigned to him or her

when it was not so assigned, or uses the SSN of any person in violation

of the laws of the U.S., is guilty of a felony.

Some of the statutorily authorized purposes for which SSA collects

and uses information maintained in the Enumeration System are: (1) To

keep accurate records of earnings as required by section 205(c)(2)(A)

of the Act; (2) to detect instances in which an individual uses an SSN

that has not been assigned to him or her; (3) to prevent the issuance

of an SSN to an individual who has not furnished evidence that he or

she is lawfully admitted to the U.S.; and (4) to deter and detect work

in the U.S. that is not authorized by law.

The services we would provide to employers under the pilot project

would assist them in reporting accurate wages to SSA and would help

prevent and deter individuals from engaging in criminal activity

described in section 208(a)(7) and (8) of the Act and unauthorized work

in the U.S. Thus, the services that SSA would render to employers who

would participate in the proposed pilot would serve some of the same

purposes for which SSA collects and maintains the SSN and citizenship/

alien status information in the Enumeration System.

In furnishing the services described above to employers who

participate in the employment authorization pilot, SSA would perform

functions for which it is responsible under Federal law, 8 U.S.C.

1324a(d). This activity would be necessary to carry out a Social

Security program, as defined in 20 CFR 401.110, and would be consistent

with SSA's disclosure regulation, 20 CFR 401.310. The regulation (20

CFR 401.310) provides, in part, that we will disclose information under

a routine use ``where necessary to carry out Social Security

programs.'' For purposes of that regulation, ``Social Security

program'' is defined as ``any program or provision of law which SSA is

responsible for administering * * *'' 20 CFR 401.110.

C. Effect of the Proposal on Individual Rights

The pilot is designed to assist employers in identifying employees

who are not authorized to work in the U.S. When operating the pilot,

SSA and INS will apply appropriate measures to ensure that the privacy

rights of employees whose SSNs are verified under the pilot are

protected to the full extent of the Privacy Act and all other

applicable laws. SSA and INS will negotiate a written agreement with

each participating employer that delineates the employer's

responsibilities and states the safeguards the employer must apply to

protect the privacy of information received from SSA and/or INS.

Individuals will have the opportunity to reconcile any discrepancies

between the information they furnish to their employers and the records

of SSA before their employers can take any adverse action based on

those discrepancies. Because employers participating in the pilot must

confirm that all new hires are authorized to work, these disclosures

should serve to lessen the incidence of discrimination against people

who look or sound foreign. Also, we will keep a detailed

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audit trail record of all disclosures made under the pilot. For these

reasons, we do not anticipate that the disclosures will have any

unwarranted adverse effect on the rights of individuals.

Dated: June 4, 1996.

Shirley S. Chater,

Commissioner of Social Security.

[FR Doc. 96-15265 Filed 6-14-96; 8:45 am]

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