The House Social Security Subcommittee has issued the following tentative witness list for its hearing on Thursday, June 7 on Employment Eligibility Verification Systems at Social Security.
The hearing will be available in streaming video. Unfortunately, I will be trying to earn a living while this Congressional hearing is going on. Would anyone be interested in watching and writing up a summary that I can post? I will be happy to give credit for this or to post it without a named source. If interested, please use the Feedback form on the right side of the page.
Frederick G. Streckewald, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Program Policy Office of Disability and Income Security Programs, Social Security AdministrationThis may sound awfully boring, but it is important. If, as now appears very possible, everyone in the country will have to go to their local Social Security office to get a new Social Security card card which includes a photograph and will have to do so on a regular basis in the future, the Social Security Administration will be dramatically transformed. The manpower requirements for such a role will certainly be in the tens of thousands. I know there are many issues associated with "employment verification", but I hope at least one of the witnesses will focus upon the impact upon the Social Security Administration of using the Social Security card as a national ID card.
Steve Schaeffer, Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Audit, Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General
Richard Stana, Director of Homeland Security and Justice, Government Accountability Office
Tyler Moran, Employment Policy Director, National Immigration Law Center, Boise, Idaho
Angelo I. Amador, Director of Immigration Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Sue Meisinger, The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce, Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Virginia
Peter Neumann, Principal Scientist, Computer Science Laboratory, SRI International, Menlo Park, California, on behalf of U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery
Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center
The hearing will be available in streaming video. Unfortunately, I will be trying to earn a living while this Congressional hearing is going on. Would anyone be interested in watching and writing up a summary that I can post? I will be happy to give credit for this or to post it without a named source. If interested, please use the Feedback form on the right side of the page.
I certainly hope that someone points out that it would be much cheaper to pay the state drivers license bureaus to issue a national ID card than to triple the size of SSA. After all, the states are already in the business of issuing IDs and have the photographic equipment necessary to do so. It should also be noted that SSA would primarily have to rely on the state drivers licenses and ID cards to establish the identity of the person before them.
ReplyDeleteWell it might not be that bad if SSA uses State Dept/DHS photo standards and allows people to have their photos taken at Costco or Walmart like they do for passports and immigration documents.
ReplyDeleteThen SSA would just assemble the card using the applicant's photo. That would save on the hassle of taking photos in the office and the cost of buying the photo equipment.
The applicant would need to bring two photos. One would be used for the card and the other kept on file with the application for the usual 30 days. That way if the card was not received, or if some info on the card was keyed incorrectly, the photo on file could be used for the replacement
I would also suggest that cards for children under 12 not have a photo, since they aren't required to appear at the office when applying for the original SSN. That solves the Enumeration At Birth problem.
However, it would mess up Enumeration At Entry, unless SSA could hook up with State or DHS to get a photo.
If you lose the card there should be a fee for replacement and make the card good for 10 years like a Green Card. That way the photo on the card would stay somewhat current.