Nicole Malliotakis: “I thank the chairman and the Ways and Means Committee staff for working with me on this legislation to combat mail theft…”

“I thank the chairman and the Ways and Means Committee staff for working with me on this legislation to combat mail theft and fraud. A few months ago, I raised the issue of stolen checks to the Ways and Means Committee after my office had been slammed with constituent cases from taxpayers who have seen their hard-earned money stolen from them via check fraud. I, alongside my colleagues, Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Congressman David Kustoff, introduced H.R. 1155, the Recovery of Stolen Checks Act, a bipartisan bill that would allow taxpayers whose tax refunds were stolen in the mail to receive a replacement payment via direct deposit. This legislation passed out of the Ways and Means Committee last month on a bipartisan basis, and it was unanimous. In my district alone, we have seen 376 constituents who have had stolen IRS checks. The amount is staggering: $5.4 million, and that is in my district alone. Out of these 376 cases, 50 times checks were stolen twice, 7 times they were stolen 3 times, and in some cases, checks were even stolen 4 times in a row from the same constituent. It has been reported that for IRS checks alone, approximately 40,000 were stolen nationally in 2024 and that is up from 100 checks in 2022. The value stolen has been approximately $1 billion, and this has become a real business for criminal organizations and enterprises and the fraudsters who are preying upon American citizens.…”