Mr. Speaker, Americans want, need, and rightfully expect Congress to protect them from the prying eyes of identity thieves and give them back control of their Social Security numbers and personal health information.

And let us not forget the Social Security system. Recent studies show that undocumented workers sustain the Social Security system with a subsidy as much as $7 billion a year. Let me repeat that: $7 billion a year.

The Social Security number is the key to many types of identity thefts.

There is a need for Social Security reform to ensure its stability, and Congress must act.

Many companies accept publicly available information such as a Social Security number as a means of [partly] authenticating a user. This is a typical policy problem where government, law enforcement and the technology industry need to work together to encourage proper authentication methods.

Our expectation was that it would have to do with Social Security, pensions, or health care.