I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1877
To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to establish that political
appointees and special governments may not access beneficiary data
systems, to establish civil penalties for certain violations relating to
disclosure or access of beneficiary information, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH5, 2025
Mr. L
ARSONof Connecticut (for himself, Mr. NEAL, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr.
B
ISHOP, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. DELUZIO, Mr. NADLER, Ms. TLAIB, Mr.
D
AVISof Illinois, Ms. JACOBS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. THOMPSONof Mis-
sissippi, Mr. J
ACKSONof Illinois, Ms. TITUS, Mr. COHEN, Mr.
K
RISHNAMOORTHI, Ms. BUDZINSKI, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. HORSFORD, Ms.
C
HU, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. BOYLEof Pennsylvania, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr.
I
VEY, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mrs. MCIVER, Mrs. HAYES, Ms.
D
ELAURO, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. ELFRETH, Ms. ANSARI, Mr. PANETTA, Mr.
S
UOZZI, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Ms.
M
CCOLLUM, Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN, Mr. TONKO, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr.
T
HOMPSONof California, Mr. STANTON, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Ms. SA´NCHEZ,
Ms. N
ORTON, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr.
A
UCHINCLOSS, Mr. CARSON, Mr. SORENSEN, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr.
L
ANDSMAN, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. POCAN, Mr. AMO, Ms.
K
ELLYof Illinois, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. RILEYof New
York, Ms. B
ROWNLEY, Mr. MORELLE, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. BROWN, Mr.
M
CGARVEY, Ms. PETTERSEN, Mr. MFUME, Mr. SWALWELL, Ms.
P
LASKETT, Ms. RANDALL, and Ms. DEANof Pennsylvania) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and
Means
A BILL
To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to establish
that political appointees and special governments may
not access beneficiary data systems, to establish civil
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penalties for certain violations relating to disclosure or
access of beneficiary information, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Americans’ 4
Social Security Data Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ACCESS BY POLITICAL APPOINTEES AND SPECIAL 6
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. 7
Section 1106 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 8
1306) is amended by adding after subsection (g) the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(h) A
CCESS BYPOLITICALAPPOINTEES ANDSPE-11
CIALGOVERNMENTEMPLOYEES.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 13
subsection of this section, an individual who is a po-14
litical appointee (as that term is defined in section 15
4(a) of the Edward ‘Ted’ Kaufman and Michael 16
Leavitt Presidential Transitions Improvements Act 17
of 2015 (5 U.S.C. 3101 note)) or a special govern-18
ment employee (as that term is defined in section 19
202(a) of title 18, United States Code) may not ac-20
cess a beneficiary data system. 21
‘‘(2) B
ENEFICIARY DATA SYSTEM DEFINED .— 22
In this section, the term ‘beneficiary data system’ 23
means a system that is maintained by the Social Se-24
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curity Administration for the purposes of admin-1
istering this Act that— 2
‘‘(A) issues or records social security ac-3
count numbers; 4
‘‘(B) is used to determine eligibility for 5
benefits under this Act; 6
‘‘(C) to pay benefits under this Act; or 7
‘‘(D) otherwise contains personally identifi-8
able information about individuals receiving or 9
applying for a benefit under this Act, includ-10
ing— 11
‘‘(i) the Master Files of Social Secu-12
rity Number Holders and SSN Applica-13
tions (Numident); 14
‘‘(ii) the Master Beneficiary Record; 15
‘‘(iii) the Supplemental Security In-16
come Record and Special Veterans Bene-17
fits; 18
‘‘(iv) the National Disability Deter-19
mination Services File; 20
‘‘(v) the Earnings Recording and Self- 21
Employment Income System; and 22
‘‘(vi) any other system accessible 23
through the Enterprise Data Warehouse.’’. 24
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SEC. 3. CIVIL DAMAGES FOR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS OR 1
DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN INFORMATION. 2
Section 1106 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 3
1301) is further amended by adding after subsection (h), 4
as added by section 2, the following: 5
‘‘(i) C
IVILPENALTIES.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 7
‘‘(A) D
ISCLOSURE OR ACCESS BY EM -8
PLOYEE OF UNITED STATES .—If any officer or 9
employee of the United States negligently dis-10
closes or accesses any information that pertains 11
to an individual in violation of any provision of 12
subsection (a) or (h), such individual may bring 13
a civil action for damages against the United 14
States in a district court of the United States. 15
‘‘(B) D
ISCLOSURE OR ACCESS BY A PER -16
SON WHO IS NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF UNITED 17
STATES.—If any person who is not an officer or 18
employee of the United States negligently dis-19
closes or accesses any information that pertains 20
to an individual in violation of any provision of 21
subsection (a) or (h), such individual may bring 22
a civil action for damages against such person 23
in a district court of the United States. 24
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‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—No liability shall arise 1
under this section with respect to any disclosure or 2
access— 3
‘‘(A) which results from a good faith, but 4
erroneous, interpretation of subsection (a) or 5
(h); or 6
‘‘(B) which is requested by the individual. 7
‘‘(3) D
AMAGES.—In any action brought under 8
paragraph (1), upon a finding of liability on the part 9
of the defendant, the defendant shall be liable to the 10
plaintiff in an amount equal to the sum of— 11
‘‘(A) the greater of— 12
‘‘(i) $5,000 for each act of unauthor-13
ized access or disclosure with respect to 14
which such defendant is found liable; or 15
‘‘(ii) the sum of— 16
‘‘(I) the actual damages sus-17
tained by the plaintiff as a result of 18
such unauthorized access or disclo-19
sure, plus 20
‘‘(II) in the case of a willful ac-21
cess or disclosure or an access or dis-22
closure which is the result of gross 23
negligence, punitive damages, plus 24
‘‘(B) the costs of the action, plus 25
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‘‘(C) reasonable attorneys fees, except that 1
if the defendant is the United States, reason-2
able attorneys fees may be awarded only if the 3
plaintiff is the prevailing party. 4
‘‘(4) P
ERIOD FOR BRINGING ACTION .—Notwith-5
standing any other provision of law, an action to en-6
force any liability created under this section may be 7
brought, without regard to the amount in con-8
troversy, at any time within 2 years after the date 9
of discovery by the plaintiff of the unauthorized dis-10
closure or access. 11
‘‘(5) N
OTIFICATION OF UNLAWFUL DISCLOSURE 12
OR ACCESS.—If any person is criminally charged by 13
indictment or information with disclosing or access-14
ing any information that pertains to an individual in 15
violation of subsection (a) or (h), the Commissioner 16
of Social Security shall notify such individual as 17
soon as practicable of such disclosure or access. The 18
Commissioner shall also notify such individual if a 19
Federal or State agency (upon notice to the Com-20
missioner by such Federal or State agency) proposes 21
an administrative determination as to disciplinary or 22
adverse action against an employee arising from the 23
employee’s unauthorized disclosure or access of the 24
individual’s information. The notice described in this 25
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subsection shall include the date of the unauthorized 1
disclosure or access and the rights of the individual 2
under such administrative determination.’’. 3
SEC. 4. INVESTIGATIONS. 4
Section 1106 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 5
1301) is further amended by adding after subsection (i), 6
as added by section 3, the following: 7
‘‘(j) I
NVESTIGATION ANDREPORT.— 8
‘‘(1) I
NVESTIGATION.—The Inspector General 9
of the Social Security Administration shall inves-10
tigate each disclosure in violation of subsection (a) 11
and each access of a beneficiary data system in vio-12
lation of subsection (h). 13
‘‘(2) T
REATMENT OF DISCLOSURE OR AC -14
CESS.—For the purposes of this subsection, the In-15
spector General may, if the Inspector General deter-16
mines appropriate, treat a series of violations of sub-17
section (a) or (h) as a single violation. 18
‘‘(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 30 days after 19
the Inspector General becomes aware of a violation 20
of subsection (a) or (h), the Inspector General shall 21
submit to Congress a report on such violation, which 22
shall include— 23
‘‘(A) a detailed description of the violation; 24
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‘‘(B) a risk assessment of any threat to the 1
privacy of any individual whose information was 2
disclosed or accessed, national security, cyberse-3
curity, or the integrity of the applicable bene-4
ficiary data system as a result of the violation; 5
and 6
‘‘(C) a detailed description of any stopped 7
payment during the unauthorized use or ac-8
cess.’’. 9
SEC. 5. PRIVACY REGULATIONS. 10
Notwithstanding this Act and the amendments made 11
by this Act, part 401 of title 20 of the Code of Federal 12
Regulations, as in effect on January 19, 2025, shall have 13
the force and effect of law. 14
SEC. 6. GAO STUDY AND INTERIM REPORTS. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 16
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller of the 17
United States shall submit to the Committee on Finance 18
of the Senate and the Committee on Ways and Means of 19
the House of Representatives a report including the fol-20
lowing information: 21
(1) The results of a study on the effects of the 22
changes made to section 1106 of the Social Security 23
Act by this Act, and by any subsequent Acts. 24
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(2) A summary of any investigations conducted 1
under section 1106(i). 2
(3) Any convictions under section 1106(a). 3
(4) Any civil actions brought under section 4
1106(j), including the results of such civil action. 5
(b) I
NTERIMREPORTS.—Not later than 1 month 6
after the date of enactment of this Act, and monthly there-7
after until such time as the report required under sub-8
section (a) is submitted, the Comptroller of the United 9
States shall submit to the Committee on Ways and Means 10
of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 11
Finance of the Senate an interim report on the informa-12
tion required under subsection (a), including the status 13
of the study described in paragraph (1) of such subsection. 14
SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE. 15
The amendments made by sections 2, 3, and 4 of this 16
Act shall apply to violations of section 1106 of the Social 17
Security Act occurring on or after the date of enactment 18
of this Act. 19
Æ
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