Thank you Senator for inviting our concerns. Please help reduce the excessive cost increase imposed on taxpayers by the Social Security Administration to obtain copies of public records ($27-29). Social Security Administration public records of application for benefits contain vital information in helping families find their "Roots." It is often the best source to find the names of parents, grandparents, spouses, residence location, etc. Copies of these vital public records have been obtain and maintained with taxpayer funding. When taxpayers requested copies, they were provided for more reasonable costs of $7 if the Social Security number was provided and correct, or $16.50 if the SS# was unknown. Effective July 1, 2001, the SSA increased charges to the taxpayers who funded the maintenance of these public records to $27 if they provided the correct SS# and $29 if they did not. That is a 386 percent cost increase to taxpayers, and an amount so high as to prevent many taxpayers from finding their roots from public records. Government agencies should be limited to the actual costs of providing copies of public records, and not assess such high costs to make a profit that discourages many taxpayers from obtaining copies of public records that are vital to their efforts to find their ancestors. I represent a group of genealogists who are vitally interested in your willingness to limit government charges for copies of public records to the actual additional costs of making those copies. Please let me know the results of your investigation of this important issue to taxpayers who make those public records possible, and thank you from all of us for your interest in this matter. Larry Campbell To unsubscribe: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
