February 1, 2017
Vote YES on the Resolution of Disapproval, H. J. Res. 40 (Social Security
Administration NICS Final Rule)
Vote NO on the Resolution of Disapproval, H. J. Res. 37 (Federal Acquisition
Regulation/Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces EO)
Dear Representatives:
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), we urge members of the
House of Representatives to support the resolution disapproving the final rule of the
Social Security Administration which implements the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System Improvement Amendment Acts of 2007.
Additionally we urge members to oppose the resolution of disapproval of the rule
submitted by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and
NASA relating to the Federal Acquisition Regulation that implement the Fair Pay
and Safe Workplaces Executive Order 13673.
Social Security Administration (SSA)’s Implementation of the NICS Improvement
Amendment Acts of 2007 Harms People with Disabilities
In December 2016, the SSA promulgated a final rule that would require the names
of all Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security
Income (SSI) benefit recipients – who, because of a mental impairment, use a
representative payee to help manage their benefits – be submitted to the National
Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is used during gun
purchases.
We oppose this rule because it advances and reinforces the harmful stereotype that
people with mental disabilities, a vast and diverse group of citizens, are violent.
There is no data to support a connection between the need for a representative
payee to manage one’s Social Security disability benefits and a propensity toward
gun violence. The rule further demonstrates the damaging phenomenon of “spread,”
or the perception that a disabled individual with one area of impairment
automatically has additional, negative and unrelated attributes. Here, the rule
automatically conflates one disability-related characteristic, that is, difficulty
managing money, with the inability to safely possess a firearm.
The rule includes no meaningful due process protections prior to the SSA’s
transmittal of names to the NICS database. The determination by SSA line staff that
a beneficiary needs a representative payee to manage their money benefit is simply
not an “adjudication” in any ordinary meaning of the word. Nor is it a
determination that the person “[l]acks the mental capacity to contract or manage his
own affairs” as required by the NICS. Indeed, the law and the SSA clearly state
AMERICAN CIVIL
LIBERTIES UNION
WASHINGTON
LEGISLATIVE OFFICE
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American Civil Liberties Union
FAIZ SHAKIR
DIRECTOR
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OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
SUSAN N. HERMAN
PRESIDENT
ANTHONY D. ROMERO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ROBERT REMAR
TREASURER
WASHINGTON
LEGISLATIVE OFFICE