Recovery of Stolen Checks Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KUSTOFF. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Jason Smith for his leadership on this issue and this important piece of legislation, as well as the leadership of Representatives Malliotakis and Sewell.

Mr. Speaker, over the last several years, the number of government checks stolen from the mail has increased dramatically.

If I could, I will share just a few statistics:

Between 2019 and 2022, there was an 87 percent increase in theft from mailboxes, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, reports of check fraud doubled from 2021 to 2022.

FinCEN's most recent report on check fraud found that between February and August of 2023, the bureau received over 15,000 individual reports about mail-theft-related check fraud.

Now, this has been a problem in my district in west Tennessee, and we have heard it has been a problem throughout the country. It is well past time that we get mail theft in the United States under control. That does start with giving Federal law enforcement officers the tools and the resources that they need to detect, investigate, and prosecute those behind these thefts.

We also have to ensure that victims of mail theft are taken care of and that they can access timely relief. That is why this bill, H.R. 1155, the Recovery of Stolen Checks Act, is so important.

Right now, it can take months and months for the IRS to issue a replacement for a stolen refund check. That is a long time. Due to the frequency of mail theft that is happening right now across this great Nation, many taxpayers are having their replacement checks stolen, as well. This is truly not acceptable. These outdated IRS regulations are partially to blame.

The IRS' current process really makes no sense. It exacerbates check fraud. It creates more bureaucratic hurdles for U.S. taxpayers and ultimately makes it more difficult for Americans to access their hard- earned dollars. For many American families, a delay in getting their tax refund has the potential to cause serious financial strain.

This bill, the Recovery of Stolen Checks Act, will give victims of mail theft the option to receive their replacement payment through direct deposit instead of having to risk mailing another check.

This is a simple fix, Mr. Speaker, and it will help expedite relief to affected taxpayers, keep government checks out of the hands of criminals, and ultimately make our government more efficient.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of our colleagues to support this bipartisan, commonsense piece of legislation which passed out of the Ways and Means Committee unanimously by a vote of 41-0.

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