State Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, spoke during a hearing to discuss his new bipartisan bill on the concealing of social security numbers by the Employment Development Department (EDD).

In a Senate Labor Committee hearing on Monday, Wilk discussed a new bipartisan bill, introduced by Wilk and Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, regarding the restriction of the EDD’s continued use of social security numbers in outgoing mail.

“Little about the EDD is modern or functional,” Wilk said. “EDD has continued to place Californians at risk for identity theft.”

Senate Bill No. 58, introduced by Wilk and Hurtado, and co-authored by Assemblyman Lackey, R-Palmdale and Assemblywoman Suzzette Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, would amend Section 11019.7 of the Government Code so that the EDD would be prohibited from sending major types of outgoing mail containing users’ full social security information.

The bill specifically states that it “would prohibit the Employment Development Department from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains any of its top three highest-volume mailed documents containing the individual’s social security number, unless that social security number is replaced with a modified unique identifier.”

Wilk’s office had on multiple occasions written letters to Governor Newsom regarding the EDD’s handling of the state’s unemployment insurance claims and the new bill addresses certain related concerns.

See Related: Wilk Urges Action To Protect Unemployed Californians From ‘Looming Tax Tsunami’

After hearing from Wilk, the committee heard from California State Auditor Bob Harris, who provided information regarding the bill’s subject matter without a direct endorsement.

“In past audits we’ve released reviewing EDD’s practice of using and applying social security numbers to mail that it sends out to its claimants, we’ve found that it does so very frequently with many of its mailings and does so millions of times per year,” Harris said. “We’ve recommended they stop that practice, in fact we recommend they prioritize the three most commonly mailed forms which are the forms that this bill would address.”

Harris made a distinction regarding whether there was a direct connection between the inclusion of the information and EDD fraud.

“We make no finding that there was a direct connection between the mailings that EDD sends out and identities being stolen. That would be pretty difficult to do,” said Harris on the bill’s purpose. “But what it does do when you mail out someone’s social security number like that is it puts it unnecessarily at risk.”

No witnesses present chose to speak up against SB-58.

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