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<h2>Social Security Testimony Before Congress</h2></div>
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<div class="column-12 topic">
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<p> </p>
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<div align="center"><strong>Statement of David F. Black, <BR>
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General Counsel, Social Security Administration<BR>
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before the House Committee on Ways and Means,<BR>
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Subcommittee on Social Security <BR><br>
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May 8, 2012
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</strong></div>
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<p align="center"><BR>
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<p>Chairman Johnson, Chairman Boustany, Ranking Members Becerra and Lewis, and
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Members of the Subcommittees on Social Security and Oversight, thank you for this
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opportunity to testify about the Death Master file.</p>
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<p>With the exception of an 8-month deployment to Afghanistan between 2010 and
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2011, I have served as the General Counsel of the Social Security Administration since
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November 2007. I also serve as the Senior Agency Official for Privacy. The agency
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maintains sensitive and personal information on almost every American and takes
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seriously its responsibility to protect it. I can attest to the agency’s tireless efforts to
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protect the personal information the public has entrusted to it.</p>
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<p>Let me begin by reiterating Commissioner Astrue’s recent testimony before the Social
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Security Subcommittee that the Administration is committed to striking a balance
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between transparency that helps prevent fraud and protecting individuals from identity
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theft, which is consistent with the framework for Chairman Johnson’s bill, H.R. 3475.
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Since Commissioner Astrue’s testimony, we have submitted to the Subcommittee
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specifications for a bill that expresses the Administration’s current thinking on how best
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to strike that difficult balance. We continue to stand ready to work with you, other
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agencies, and interested organizations to advance a bill that promotes our common goals.</p>
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<p>We at Social Security do not generate death data; rather, we collect it from a variety
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of sources so that we can run our programs. We use death data to stop benefits and to
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determine eligibility for survivors’ benefits.</p>
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<p>Individuals and entities became aware that we were gathering this high-value
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information. In 1978, Ronald Perholtz filed a lawsuit against us under the Freedom of
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Information Act (FOIA) to gain access to the death information in our files. In 1980, the
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parties entered into a court-approved consent decree that required the agency to release to
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Mr. Perholtz the data requested in his lawsuit. The Department of Justice advised us that
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Congress had not provided an exemption to the FOIA or the Privacy Act that would
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justify withholding the data covered by the court-approved consent decree.</p>
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<p>In 1983, Congress added subsection (r) to section 205 of the Social Security Act.
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This subsection requires us to collect death information from States to update our
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program records, provides the circumstances under which certain agencies may receive
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such information from us, and, notably, exempts the death information we receive from
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States from FOIA and the Privacy Act. However, Congress did not act to exempt from
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FOIA our release of death information that we receive from other sources.<BR>
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<BR>
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In order for us to manage the demand for FOIA requests for death information and
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because we had no legal basis to withhold the information, we created a file that we could
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make available to the public. That file is commonly known as the Death Master File.
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Since 1992, we have provided the file to the Department of Commerce’s National
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Technical Information Service (NTIS) to distribute because NTIS functions as a national
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clearinghouse for a wide array of Government data. NTIS reimburses us for the file
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under a contractual arrangement. NTIS recovers its dissemination costs by making the
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||
Death Master File available to 630 entities including banks, hospitals, universities,
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insurance companies, and genealogical services. In addition, NTIS makes the file
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available for online searching by many organizations with similar requirements but who
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do not wish to load the raw data on their internal systems. The financial services
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community in particular expressed a desire for this ability when the Ways and Means
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Subcommittee on Social Security and the Financial Services Subcommittee on
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Investigations and Oversight held a joint hearing on the DMF in November 2001.</p>
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<p>Our practice involving the Death Master File remains legally sound, based on FOIA,
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case law, the Department of Justice FOIA guidance, and OMB’s Privacy Act guidance.
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Any attempt to limit disclosure of death information under current law would
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undoubtedly spawn additional litigation. More importantly, we see no new judicial
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interpretation of FOIA or the Privacy Act that would allow us to withhold data on
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deceased individuals from the general public. Accordingly, the Administration is seeking
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congressional action to exempt this information from the FOIA to protect countless
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Americans from the threat of identity theft through abuse of the Death Master File.
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Thank you for the opportunity to testify.</p>
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