[Senate Report 115-171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 241
115th Congress } { Report
1st Session SENATE
} { 115-171
_______________________________________________________________________
STRENGTHENING THE DEPARTMENT OF
HOMELAND SECURITY SECURE MAIL INITIATIVE ACT
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 1208
TO DIRECT THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY TO
PROVIDE FOR AN OPTION UNDER THE SECURE MAIL INITIATIVE
UNDER WHICH A PERSON TO WHOM A DOCUMENT IS SENT
UNDER THAT INITIATIVE MAY ELECT TO HAVE THE UNITED
STATES POSTAL SERVICE USE THE HOLD FOR PICKUP SERVICE
OR THE SIGNATURE CONFIRMATION SERVICE IN DELIVERING THE DOCUMENT, AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
October 16, 2017.--Ordered to be printed
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
79-010 WASHINGTON : 2017
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
RAND PAUL, Kentucky JON TESTER, Montana
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
STEVE DAINES, Montana KAMALA D. HARRIS, California
Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
Jennifer L. Selde, Professional Staff Member
Margaret E. Daum, Minority Staff Director
Stacia M. Cardille, Minority Chief Counsel
Charles A. Moskowitz, Minority Senior Legislative Counsel
Subhasri Ramanathan, Minority Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 241
115th Congress } { Report
1st Session SENATE
} { 115-171
======================================================================
STRENGTHENING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECURE MAIL
INITIATIVE ACT
_______
October 16, 2017.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Johnson, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 1208]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1208) to direct the
Secretary of Homeland Security to provide for an option under
the Secure Mail Initiative under which a person to whom a
document is sent under that initiative may elect to have the
United States Postal Service use the Hold for Pickup service or
the Signature Confirmation service in delivering the document,
and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports
favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill,
as amended, do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................4
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................4
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................5
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................5
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............6
I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY
S. 1208, the Strengthening the Department of Homeland
Security Secure Mail Initiative Act, requires the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) to offer additional mail delivery
services to individuals receiving documents from U.S. Citizen
and Immigration Services (USCIS) through the Secure Mail
Initiative (SMI). The bill further requires that customers
requesting U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Hold for Pickup or
Signature Confirmation, or successor services, pay the full
cost of the service, including the cost of administering the
service.
The bill also allows DHS to contract with private companies
to provide these mail delivery services, if the private carrier
can provide better service and value than the USPS.
II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION
Since 2011, USCIS has used the SMI to mail certain types of
immigration documents in a more secure method than First Class
Mail through the USPS.\1\ Currently under the SMI, USCIS sends
permanent resident cards (Green Cards) and documents pertaining
to travel and employment authorization through the USPS
Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation (``delivery
confirmation'').\2\ This service allows individuals to track
the delivery status for their personal documents and allows
USCIS to confirm if sensitive immigration documents have been
delivered to the correct address.
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\1\USCIS Improves Delivery of Immigration Documents through Secure
Mail Initiative, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Serv's. (May 2, 2011),
https://www.uscis.gov/archive/archive-news/uscis-improves-delivery-
immigration-documents-through-secure-mail-initiative.
\2\Id.
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However, according to the USCIS Ombudsman, the public
office responsible for aiding applicants experiencing
difficulties applying for immigration benefits, delivery
confirmation may not be adequate to protect sensitive
immigration documents.\3\ With delivery confirmation provided
to USCIS, the USPS can only show proof of delivery of the
documents to a city, state, and zip code, but not to a specific
address.\4\ If the address is listed incorrectly in the USCIS
system, or if the documents are delivered by USPS to another
address within the zip code, USCIS considers the documents to
be safely delivered to their lawful owner.\5\
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\3\U.S. Dep't. of Homeland Sec., Office of the Citizenship and
Immigration Services Ombudsman's 2017 Annual Report to Congress 59-62
(June 29, 2017), available at https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/
publications/DHS%20Annual%20Report%202017_0.pdf.
\4\Id. at 60.
\5\U.S. Dep't. of Homeland Sec., Office of the Citizenship and
Immigration Services Ombudsman's 2016 Annual Report to Congress 40
(June 29, 2016), available at https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/
publications/CISOMB%20Annual%20Report%202016.pdf.
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If the documents fail to reach the applicant, the
individual must request replacement copies by resubmitting the
application and repaying the fees.\6\ While USCIS does waive
the fees if the individual can prove the document was delivered
to the wrong address or was not delivered at all, the Ombudsman
has found that it is difficult for applicants to provide
proof.\7\ Proving non-delivery may be even more difficult in
cases where the applicant is a victim of mailbox theft.
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\6\Id.
\7\Id.
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The financial burden on the applicant is further
exaggerated by the fact that USCIS does not separate
application fees, requiring applicants to repay expensive
biometric fees on replacement documents, even when the
biometrics do not need to be updated.\8\ The Ombudsman has told
USCIS that making applicants pay replacement fees, which can be
thousands of dollars, in cases where misdelivery was the fault
of USCIS or USPS is inherently unfair.\9\ Even in cases where
the applicant has the replacement fees waived, waiting for new
documents may have severe consequences, including ``job loss,
inability to attend a family member's wedding or funeral in
another country, and difficulties proving lawful immigration
status.''\10\
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\8\Id.
\9\Id.
\10\Id. at 39.
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For these reasons, in its last several annual reports to
Congress, the Ombudsman has recommended that USCIS consider
alternative mailing options to those currently offered,
including requiring signature for delivery.\11\ As a result,
USCIS told the Ombudsman in 2014 it would begin a ``hold for
pickup'' pilot program.\12\ However, USCIS does not have a
start date for this pilot program.\13\
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\11\U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec., supra note 3, at 62.
\12\Id. at 60. (USCIS did not indicate if they would use the USPS
product Hold for Pickup or another customized service.)
\13\Id.; information provided to Comm. staff by USCIS (Apr. 2017).
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The DHS Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) has also
recommended that USCIS mail immigration documents using more
secure methods.\14\ In addition to the burden on the individual
waiting for replacement documents in the case of misdelivery or
theft, duplicate immigration documents that remain unaccounted
for can pose a national security risk.\15\ Missing duplicate
immigration documents may be used to help illegal immigrants
enter or remain in the U.S., or to fraudulently apply for
``public benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, Veterans'
assistance, and government grants.''\16\ Customs and Border
Protection's Fraudulent Document Analysis Unit told the DHS OIG
that these imposter cases represent 80 percent of all Green
Card fraud-related cases.\17\
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\14\U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec. Off. of Inspector Gen., OIG-17-11,
Better Safeguards Are Needed in USCIS Green Card Issue 19 (Nov. 16,
2016), available at https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/
2017/OIG-17-11-Nov16.pdf.
\15\Id. at 20.
\16\Id.
\17\Id.
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Improperly delivered documents come at a great cost to the
individuals who have to request replacements, but they also
represent a great cost to the agency as well. USCIS uses a
``Tiger Team'' of up to four dozen personnel to address Green
Cards which have gone missing or are returned to the agency,
taking several months to fully investigate the most complex
cases.\18\ Documents returned to USCIS must be re-processed to
account for each document, representing dozens of personnel
hours per case, including determining how to get documents back
into the hands of their rightful owners.\19\
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\18\Id. at 20-21.
\19\Id. at 21.
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To help individuals impacted by misdelivered documents,
USCIS must spend resources confirming applicants' documents
have been either improperly delivered or intercepted before
they could be retrieved.\20\ The DHS estimates that the cost of
responding to a typical non-delivery case is $10.85 to
$14.46.\21\ The total costs for USCIS to respond to missing
documents nearly doubled between fiscal year (FY) 2013 and
FY2015, from $780,267 to $1,488,082.\22\
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\20\Id.
\21\Id.
\22\Id.
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The mail delivery problems have been increasing in recent
years. In FY2013, USCIS received 44,519 cases of applicants
with missing Green Cards, representing 3 percent of all cards
issued that year.\23\ By FY2015, this number had more than
doubled to 92,645 complaints representing 4.5 percent of total
Green Cards.\24\
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\23\Id. at 15.
\24\Id.
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With the tracking number provided by the SMI, applicants
can also contact USPS directly when they suspect their
documents may have been improperly delivered.\25\ In October
2015, the USPS Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) estimated
that over an eight month period the USPS received 3,000
complaints of Green Cards that were missing or stolen despite
being marked as delivered.\26\ In June 2016, the DHS OIG asked
the USPS OIG to study 18,000 Green Cards that had been reported
as missing in the first 4 months of 2016 and found that 95
percent of the documents were delivered.\27\
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\25\U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, supra note 1.
\26\U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec. Office of Inspector General, supra
note 14, at 16.
\27\Id.
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To address the recommendation of both the USCIS Ombudsman
and the DHS OIG that USCIS mail documents through more secure
methods, this bill directs USCIS to offer two existing USPS
delivery services, Hold for Pickup or Signature Confirmation
for those documents which are currently mailed under the SMI.
Individuals receiving documents covered by the SMI may elect
more the secure delivery, provided that they pay for the
increased cost for the service. After the bill is enacted, if
the SMI is changed or if USPS no longer offers the Hold for
Pickup or Signature Confirmation services, USCIS would still
offer the more secure delivery through the successor programs
or services, if they exist.
III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced S. 1208, the
Strengthening the Department of Homeland Security Secure Mail
Initiative Act, on May 23, 2017, with Senators David Perdue (R-
GA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The bill was referred to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 1208 at a business meeting on
July 26, 2017. The Committee ordered the bill reported
favorably by voice vote, en bloc, and without amendment.
Senators present for the vote on the bill were Johnson,
Portman, Lankford, Daines, McCaskill, Heitkamp, Peters, Hassan
and Harris. Consistent with Committee Rule 11, the Committee
reports the bill with a technical amendment by mutual agreement
of the Chairman and Ranking Member.
IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED
Section 1. Short title
This section designates the short title of the bill as the
``Strengthening the Department of Homeland Security Secure Mail
Initiative Act.''
Sec. 2. Definitions
This section includes definitions of the term ``Hold for
Pickup service'', ``Signature Confirmation service'',
``Immigration Examinations Fee Account'', ``Postal Service'',
and ``Secretary.''
Sec. 3. Offering hold for pickup and signature confirmation services
under the Secure Mail Initiative
This section requires DHS to offer individuals receiving
documents under the SMI, or any successor program, the option
of a USPS Hold for Pickup or Signature Confirmation services.
This section also stipulates how DHS must calculate the fee for
these services and how to allocate the fee once it is
collected. This section also states that DHS may contract with
a private carrier for these services if the carrier can provide
better service and value than the USPS, and outlines the
process for severing the contract with the USPS under this
circumstance.
Sec. 4. Report
This section requires that DHS submit to Congress a report
on the implementation of this bill, the fees collected pursuant
to it, and the number of times these services have been used.
V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT
Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs
on state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE
September 22, 2017.
Hon. Ron Johnson,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1208, the
Strengthening the Department of Homeland Security Secure Mail
Initiative Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark
Grabowicz.
Sincerely,
Keith Hall.
Enclosure.
S. 1208--Strengthening the Department of Homeland Security Secure Mail
Initiative Act
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) in the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) mails about 4 million
documents each year to applicants for immigration services,
including employment authorization, permanent residence, and
travel authorization. S. 1208 would require CIS, within one
year of enactment, to allow applicants to use certain mail
security services offered by the Postal Service (USPS) when
they receive mail from CIS. Persons who choose such services
would pay an additional fee that would be set by CIS and
intended to recover the full costs associated with providing
the service, including CIS administrative costs and USPS
charges for those services.
Based on an analysis of information from CIS and USPS, CBO
expects that people who choose to use enhanced mail security
would have to pay around $3 to $4 per document. That fee would
cover the difference between the cost for current mail delivery
and the cost for the enhanced security, plus a small amount for
CIS administrative costs. Based on information from CIS, CBO
estimates that at least half of the affected applicants would
choose to pay the additional fee.
The Postal Service would earn about $2 more per delivery
for the enhanced mail security. Thus, CBO estimates that
enacting the bill would increase net income for the USPS by
roughly $5 million annually, beginning in fiscal year 2019; CIS
indicates that it does not expect to implement the bill until
late in 2018. CBO further estimates that enacting S. 1208 would
have no significant net effect on direct spending by DHS
because the department would collect and spend roughly the same
amounts in future years to process requests for enhanced mail
security for CIS documents.
Enacting the bill would affect on-budget direct spending by
DHS; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, CBO
estimates that any such effects would be insignificant in each
year. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues. (USPS cash
flows are classified as off-budget and thus are not subject to
pay-as-you-go procedures.)
CBO estimates that enacting S. 1208 would not significantly
affect net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the
four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 1208 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Mark Grabowicz.
The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED
Because S. 1208 would not repeal or amend any provision of
current law, it would make no changes in existing law within
the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12 of rule XXVI
of the Standing Rules of the Senate.
[all]