In the News: Joe introduces missing children bill
House members introduce missing-children bill
By Bernie BeckerA bipartisan group of lawmakers announced they were introducing legislation that would give the IRS greater leeway to help find missing children.
As it stands, the IRS can only share tax-return information for limited reasons. The new measure would give law enforcement access to that data in the case of a missing child.
“Information that could help bring an abducted child home is sitting right under our noses, yet we don’t empower law enforcement to use it,” Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement.
Reps. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee that deals with taxes, Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) are also backers of the House measure.
The bill comes several months after a couple of bills on the topic were introduced in the Senate: one from Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the other from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Klobuchar attended a Wednesday event with House lawmakers to announce their new bill.
According to a release on that measure, the Treasury Department found in a limited sample that about 1 out of 3 children abducted by a parent had their Social Security number used in a tax return, which often could have told law enforcement the child’s new address.
In all, 200,000 or so children a year are abducted by a family member.
