deducted shall be considered to have been paid to the employee at the time of such deduction.

(d) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing_any Federal official, agent, or representative, in carrying out any of the provisions of this Act, to take charge of any child over the objection of either of the parents of such child, or of the person standing in loco parentis to such child.

RULES AND REGULATIONS 9

SEC. 1102. [42 U.S.C. 1302] (a) The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, respectively, shall make and publish such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, as may be necessary to the efficient administration of the functions with which each is charged under this Act.

(b)(1) Whenever the Secretary publishes a general notice of proposed rulemaking for any rule or regulation proposed under title XVIII, title XIX, or part B of this title that may have a significant impact on the operations of a substantial number of small rural hospitals, the Secretary shall prepare and make available for public comment an initial regulatory impact analysis. Such analysis shall describe the impact of the proposed rule or regulation on such hospitals and shall set forth, with respect to small rural hospitals, the matters required under section 603 of title 5, United States Code, to be set forth with respect to small entities. The initial regulatory impact analysis (or a summary) shall be published in the Federal Register at the time of the publication of general notice of proposed rulemaking for the rule or regulation.

(2) Whenever the Secretary promulgates a final version of a rule or regulation with respect to which an initial regulatory impact analysis is required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall prepare a final regulatory impact analysis with respect to the final version of such rule or regulation. Such analysis shall set forth, with respect to small rural hospitals, the matters required under section 604 of title 5, United States Code, to be set forth with respect to small entities. The Secretary shall make copies of the final regulatory impact analysis available to the public and shall publish, in the Federal Register at the time of publication of the final version of the rule or regulation, a statement describing how a member of the public may obtain a copy of such analysis.

(3) If a regulatory flexibility analysis is required by chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code 10, for a rule or regulation to which this subsection applies, such analysis shall specifically address the impact of the rule or regulation on small rural hospitals.

SEPARABILITY

SEC. 1103. [42 U.S.C. 1303] If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

"See Vol. II, P.L. 94-437, §802(b), with respect to regulations regarding Indian health services.

10 See Vol. II, Title 5, §§603 and 604.

RESERVATION OF POWER

SEC. 1104. [42 U.S.C. 1304] The right to alter, amend, or repeal any provision of this Act is hereby reserved to the Congress.

SHORT TITLE

SEC. 1105. [42 U.S.C. 1305] This Act may be cited as the "Social Security Act".

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION IN POSSESSION OF AGENCY 11

SEC. 1106. [42 U.S.C. 1306] (a)(1) No disclosure of any return or portion of a return (including information returns and other written statements) filed with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue under title VIII of the Social Security Act or under subchapter E of chapter 1 or subchapter A of chapter 9 of the Internal Revenue Code 12, or under regulations made under authority thereof, which has been transmitted to the head of the applicable agency by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, or of any file, record, report, or other paper, or any information, obtained at any time by the head of the applicable agency or by any officer or employee of the applicable agency in the course of discharging the duties of the head of the applicable agency under this Act, and no disclosure of any such file, record, report, or other paper, or information, obtained at any time by any person from the head of the applicable agency or from any officer or employee of the applicable agency, shall be made except as the head of the applicable agency may by regulations prescribe and except as otherwise provided by Federal law. Any person who shall violate any provision of this section shall be deemed guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $10,000 for each occurrence of a violation, or by imprisonment not exceeding 5 years, or both.

(2) For purposes of this subsection and subsection (b), the term "applicable agency" means

(A) the Social Security Administration, with respect to matter transmitted to or obtained by such Administration or matter disclosed by such Administration, or

(B) the applicable agency, with respect to matter transmitted to or obtained by such Department or matter disclosed by such Department.

(b) Requests for information, disclosure of which is authorized by regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, and requests for services, may, subject to such limitations as may be prescribed by the head of the applicable agency to avoid undue interference with his functions under this Act, be complied with if the agency, person, or organization making the request agrees to pay for the information or services requested in such amount, if

11 See Vol. II, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(3), with respect to information available to the public from agencies; and 5 U.S.C. 8347(m)(3), with respect to disclosure of information to the Office of Personnel Management.

42-178 99-18

See Vol. II, 38 U.S.C. 5317 and 5318 with respect to Veterans' Benefits information.

See Vol. II, P.L. 83–591, §6103(1)(1), with respect to disclosure of returns and return information by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Social Security Administration; and §7213(a)(1), with respect to the penalty for unauthorized disclosure of that tax return information.

See Vol. II, P.L. 88-525, §11(e)(19), with respect to requesting and exchanging information for purposes of verifying income and eligibility for food stamps.

See Vol. II, P.L. 97–253, §307(f), with respect to supplying information about civil service an

nuitants.

12 P.L. 76-1. Should refer, instead, to P.L. 83-591, Subtitles A and C.

any (not exceeding the cost of furnishing the information or services), as may be determined by the head of the applicable agency. Payments for information or services furnished pursuant to this section shall be made in advance or by way of reimbursement, as may be requested by the head of the applicable agency, and shall be deposited in the Treasury as a special deposit to be used to reimburse the appropriations (including authorizations to make expenditures from the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund) for the unit or units of the applicable agency which furnished the information or services. Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this subsection,_requests for information made pursuant to the provisions of part D of title IV of this Act for the purpose of using Federal records for locating parents shall be complied with and the cost incurred in providing such information shall be paid for as provided in such part D of title IV.

(c) Notwithstanding sections 552 and 552a of title 5, United States Code 13, or any other provision of law, whenever the Commissioner of Social Security or the Secretary determines that a request for information is made in order to assist a party in interest (as defined in section 3 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 14 (29 U.S.C. 1002)) with respect to the administration of an employee benefit plan (as so defined), or is made for any other purpose not directly related to the administration of the program or programs under this Act to which such information relates, such Commissioner or Secretary may require the requester to pay the full cost, as determined by the such Commissioner or Secretary, of providing such information.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, in any case in which—

(1) information regarding whether an individual is shown on the records of the Commissioner of Social Security as being alive or deceased is requested from the Commissioner for purposes of epidemiological or similar research which the Commissioner in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services finds may reasonably be expected to contribute to a national health interest, and

(2) the requester agrees to reimburse the Commissioner for providing such information and to comply with limitations on safeguarding and rerelease or redisclosure of such information as may be specified by the Commissioner,

the Commissioner shall comply with such request, except to the extent that compliance with such request would constitute a violation of the terms of any contract entered into under section 205(r).

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section the Secretary shall make available to each State agency operating a program under title XIX and shall, subject to the limitations contained in subsection (e) 15, make available for public inspection in readily accessible form and fashion, the following official reports (not including, however, references to any internal tolerance rules and practices that may be contained therein, internal working papers

13 See Vol. II, Title 5.

14 See Vol. II, P.L. 93-406.

15 As in original. Probably should be "subsection f".

or other informal memoranda) dealing with the operation of the health programs established by titles XVIII and XIX

(1) individual contractor performance reviews and other formal evaluations of the performance of carriers, intermediaries, and State agencies, including the reports of follow-up reviews;

(2) comparative evaluations of the performance of such contractors, including comparisons of either overall performance or of any particular aspect of contractor operation; and

(3) program validation survey reports and other formal evaluations of the performance of providers of services, including the reports of follow-up reviews, except that such reports shall not identify individual patients, individual health care practitioners, or other individuals.

(f) No report described in subsection (e) shall be made public by the Secretary or the State title XIX agency until the contractor or provider of services whose performance is being evaluated has had a reasonable opportunity (not exceeding 60 days) to review such report and to offer comments pertinent parts of which may be incorporated in the public report; nor shall the Secretary be required to include in any such report information with respect to any deficiency (or improper practice or procedures) which is known by the Secretary to have been fully corrected, within 60 days of the date such deficiency was first brought to the attention of such contractor or provider of services, as the case may be.

PENALTY FOR FRAUD 16

SEC. 1107. [42 U.S.C. 1307] (a) Whoever, with the intent to defraud any person, shall make or cause to be made any false representation concerning the requirements of this Act, of chapter 2, 21, or 23 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 17, or of any provision of subtitle F of such Code which corresponds (within the meaning of section 7852(b) of such Code 18) to a provision contained in subchapter E of chapter 9 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 19, or of any rules or regulations issued thereunder, knowing such representations to be false, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

(b) Whoever, with the intent to elicit information as to the social security account number, date of birth, employment, wages, or benefits of any individual (1) falsely represents to the Commissioner of Social Security or the Secretary that he is such individual, or the wife, husband, widow, widower, divorced wife, divorced husband, surviving divorced wife, surviving divorced husband, surviving divorced mother, surviving divorced father, child, or parent of such individual, or the duly authorized agent of such individual, or of the wife, husband, widow, widower, divorced wife, divorced husband, surviving divorced wife, surviving divorced husband, surviving divorced mother, surviving divorced father, child, or parent of such individual, or (2) falsely represents to any person that he is an employee or agent of the United States, shall be deemed guilty

16 See Vol. II, 18 U.S.C. 1028 and 1738, with respect to penalties relating to use of identification documents.

17 P.L. 83-591.

18 See Vol. II, P.L. 83–591.

19 P.L. 76-1.

of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $10,000 for each recurrence of a violation or by imprisonment not exceeding 5 years or both.

ADDITIONAL GRANTS TO PUERTO RICO, THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, GUAM, AND AMERICAN SAMOA; LIMITATION ON TOTAL PAYMENTS 20

SEC. 1108. [42 U.S.C. 1308] (a) LIMITATION ON TOTAL PAYMENTS TO EACH TERRITORY.

(1) IN GENERAL.-Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act (except for paragraph (2) of this subsection), the total amount certified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under titles I, X, XIV, and XVI, under parts A and E of title IV, and under subsection (b) of this section, for payment to any territory for a fiscal year shall not exceed the ceiling amount for the territory for the fiscal year.

(2) CERTAIN PAYMENTS DISREGARDED. Paragraph (1) of this subsection shall be applied without regard to any payment made under section 403(a)(2), 403(a)(4), 403(a)(5)21, 406, or 413(f). 22

(b) ENTITLEMENT TO MATCHING GRANT.

(1) IN GENERAL.-Each territory shall be entitled to receive from the Secretary for each fiscal year a grant in an amount equal to 75 percent of the amount (if any) by which—

(A) the total expenditures of the territory during the fiscal year under the territory programs funded under parts A and E of title IV, including any amount paid to the State under part A of title IV that is transferred in accordance with section 404(d) and expended under the program to which transferred 23; exceeds

(B) the sum of—

(i) the amount of the family assistance grant payable to the territory without regard to section 409; and

(ii) the total amount expended by the territory during fiscal year 1995 pursuant to parts A and F of title IV (as so in effect), other than for child care.

(2) APPROPRIATION.-Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated for fiscal years 1997 through 2002, such sums as are necessary for grants under this paragraph.

(c) DEFINITIONS.-As used in this section:

(1) TERRITORY.-The term "territory" means Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.

(2) CEILING AMOUNT.-The term "ceiling amount" means, with respect to a territory and a fiscal year, the mandatory ceiling amount with respect to the territory, reduced for the fiscal year in accordance with subsection (e), and reduced by the

20 P.L. 104-193, §103(b)(3), struck out "LIMITATION ON PAYMENTS TO PUERTO RICO, THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, GUAM, AND AMERICAN SAMOA" and substituted “ADDITIONAL GRANTS TO PUERTO RICO, THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, GUAM, AND AMERICAN SAMOA; LIMITATION ON TOTAL PAYMENTS", effective October 1, 1996.

21 P.L. 105-33, §5001(b), inserted "403(a)(5),”.

22 P.L. 105-33, §5512(a), amended subsection (a) in its entirety, effective as if included in the enactment of title II of P.L. 104-193, August 22, 1996. For subsection (a) as it formerly read, see Vol. II, Superseded Provisions, P.L. 105-33.

23 P.L. 105-33, §5512(b), inserted ", including any amount paid to the State under part A of title IV that is transferred in accordance with section 404(d) and expended under the program to which transferred", effective as if included in the enactment of title II of P.L. 104-193, August 22, 1996.