By ED RONCO
The State News
A new law requiring Michigan residents to submit their Social Security numbers when they renew their driver’s licenses is being challenged in a lawsuit filed Thursday by Secretary of State Candice Miller.
States are required under the federal Welfare Reform Act approved by Congress in 1997 to collect Social Security numbers from licensed drivers to help track parents who fail to pay child support.
Miller said the requirement, which took effect in October, violates the privacy of Michigan’s 6.9 million licensed drivers.
“I will not sit idly by while residents’ privacy is invaded by an intrusive, ineffective and unfunded mandate,” Miller said.
Michigan is the only state not complying with the requirement that took effect in October, said Pam Carte,r of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The state could lose about $900 million annually in federal money if it fails to comply with the requirement. But Miller said Thursday that the lawsuit will not hurt the state’s federal money.
“There is no imminent danger of jeopardizing funds to the state,” Miller said about the lawsuit. “I may be reckless, but I’m not crazy.
“I am not going to put $1 billion at risk.”
While the state Family Independence Agency is not taking a position on the federal lawsuit, agency spokeswoman Maureen Sorbet says Social Security numbers are useful tools in collecting overdue child support payments from deadbeat parents.
Secretary of State spokeswoman Elizabeth Boyd said the state already is effective in pursuing deadbeat parents.
“Right now the Family Independence Agency asks us for info on people they are looking for,” she said. “In over 90 percent of the cases, we are able to provide it.”
The lawsuit against the U.S. Health and Human Services Department comes after the agency rejected requests from the FIA and Miller to be exempt from the Social Security requirement.
Boyd said the FIA initially made a request to be exempt from the law. When they were turned down, the Department of State resubmitted an exemption request. They were turned down on Dec. 29.
Michigan already has a database system more efficient and effective than another that would use Social Security numbers, the lawsuit states.
The addition of a database with the Social Security numbers of licensed drivers in Michigan would be redundant and costly to develop, Miller said. A database of Social Security numbers just from licensed drivers would leave out more than four million people in Michigan.
“We believe there are other ways to go about this,” Boyd said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
