U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., scored a win as the U.S. House passed his bill to protect children’s identities from fraudsters as part of the “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act” which it was rolled into.
Back in March, Curbelo paired up with U.S. Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., Kenny Marchant, R-Tex., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., to unveil the “Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act.” The proposal empowers the Social Security Administration (SSA) to “accept electronic signatures as consumer consent for financial institutions trying to verify customer ID” with Curbelo and the other representatives insist will cut down on fraud.
Curbelo’s office cited a study which found that almost one in ten children had their Social Security Number (SSN) stolen and used to open up bank accounts and credit cards which can hurt the child’s credit. Some studies show that children’s identities are stolen far more often than adults with some reports indicating that children are 50 times more likely to have their data stolen.
On Tuesday, after the House passed his bill, the South Florida Republican weighed in on why the bill was needed.
“Unfortunately, South Florida is all too familiar with the lengths at which fraudsters will go through to steal an identity, but the fact that children’s identities and personal information are being exploited at such alarming rates cannot continue to go unaddressed,” Curbelo said. “This legislation is an effective, bipartisan solution that would limit synthetic ID fraud and help protect millions of identities from being stolen. We need to ensure that fraud detection is modernized to stop these crimes from continuing to negatively impact American families, and I look forward to the President signing it into law quickly.”
“No child should ever fall victim to financial crime or identity fraud. Targeting our kids and running up massive debts in their names is shameful and cowardly, and we must fight back to ensure they have the chance to build their own futures," said Sinema, who has worked on privacy issues during her years in Congress, often pairing up with U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., when the bill was unveiled. "Our fix modernizes federal fraud detection to stop these criminals and protect Arizona kids by improving screening for financial transactions. Every Arizonan deserves financial peace of mind, which is why we’ll keep working across the aisle to pass this commonsense bill.”
The Senate version of the legislation was championed by U.S. Sens. Tim Scott, R-SC, Bill Cassidy, R-La., Claire McCaskill (MO), and Gary Peters, D-Mich.
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