i am nancy berryhill, social security acting commissioner. the scope of our programs is enormous. we pay monthly benefits over 62 million social security beneficiaries and 89 supplemental security income recipients. given hundred and 34 beta social security beneficiaries and 55,000,000,002 ssi recipients. in addition requested 279 million to workers records last year. the ssn -- we have a nine digit number to allow employees accurately report earnings and determine eligibility for benefits. to date we have issued around 505 million unique numbers to eligible individuals. although we traded social security number for our programs, for a personal identifier is across government and private sector. for example in 1943 the executive order required federal agencies to use the ssn. advances in computer technology and data processing in the 60s further used than other within federal agencies.for example, in 1961, the civil service commission began using the ssn as identification number for all federal employees. next year the irs began using the number as a taxpayer identification number

i'm nancy berryhill social security's acting commissioner. the scope of our programs is enormous. we pay monthly benefits to over 62 million social security beneficiaries and 8 million supplemental security recipients. during 2017, we paid about $934 billion in addition, we posted $249 million earning items to workers records last year. the ssn underpins the programs we administer. we designated this nine-digit number in 1936 to allow employers to employers employers to accurately report earnings. today we issue around 505 million unique numbers to individuals. we recreated the social security number for our programs has become a personal identifier used across government and the private sector. for example, in 1943, the executive order required federal agencies to use the ssn. advances in computer technology and data processing in 1960 further increased the use of the number within federal agencies. for example, in 1961, the federal civil service commission began using the ssn as an identification number for the federal employees. and next year, the irs began using the number as

witnesses include social security administration acting commissioner, nancy berryhill, mcafee chief technology officer and the counsel for the electronic privacy information center. they talk about recommendations regarding data privacy laws, identity authentication, social security number modernization and identity theft protection for this is just under 90 minutes.

seated at the table or nancy berryhill for acting commissioner of the social security administration, elizabeth curda, director of education workforce and income security for government accountability office, samuel lester can privacy counsel electronic privacy information center, paul rosenzweig -- >> it's rosenzweig. >> thank you. senior fellow at the art history institute, the senior vice president and chief technology officer mcafee, jeremy grant, coordinator, james louis senior vice president technology policy program center for strategic and international studies. acting commissioner berryhill, please begin your testimony. >> chairman johnson, ranking member larson and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to identify identity theft and the future of the social security number. i'm the social security acting commissioner. the scope of our program is enormous. we pay monthly benefits to over 62 million social security beneficiaries and 8 million supplemental security recipien recipients. during 2017 repeat of 934 billion social security beneficiaries and 55 billi