Two years in the past, Texas lawmakers quietly lower thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funding for kits supposed to assist monitor down lacking children, after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed there was no proof they’d aided legislation enforcement to find misplaced kids.
The corporate that made the kits had used outdated and exaggerated statistics on lacking kids to bolster their gross sales and charged for the supplies when related merchandise have been obtainable for much less or without spending a dime.
Now, some Texas legislators are once more pushing to spend thousands and thousands extra in taxpayer {dollars} to buy such kits, slipping the funding right into a 1,000-page funds proposal.
Though the proposal doesn’t designate which firm would provide them, a 2021 invoice launched by Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell all however ensures Texas will contract with the identical vendor, the Nationwide Little one Identification Program. Again then, Campbell made clear that her intent was to enshrine into legislation a long-standing partnership between the state and NCIDP that goes again greater than twenty years. Her laws, signed into legislation that June, additionally specified that every time the state allotted funding for such supplies, the Texas Training Company should buy identification kits which can be “inkless,” a know-how that NCIDP has patented.
The Waco-based firm is led by former NFL participant Kenny Hansmire, who ProPublica and the Tribune discovered had a historical past of failed companies and monetary troubles, together with thousands and thousands of {dollars} in federal tax liens and a ban from conducting sure finance-related enterprise in Connecticut attributable to his function in an alleged scheme to defraud buyers.
Hansmire cultivated relationships with highly effective Texas legislators who went on to assist his initiatives. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, championed Campbell’s laws funding the kits and later instructed the information organizations that the state ought to prioritize something that may velocity up the return of a lacking youngster. Campbell instructed lawmakers in a listening to that the bipartisan measure, which was dropped at her by Hansmire and Patrick, was essential to “shield our kids.”
Patrick, Campbell and Hansmire didn’t reply to interview requests for this story. Hansmire beforehand instructed the newsrooms that his money owed and different monetary points had been resolved. He additionally defended his firm’s kits, saying they’ve helped discover a number of lacking kids, and instructed reporters to ask “any policeman” concerning the kits’ usefulness. Nevertheless, not one of the dozen Texas legislation enforcement companies that the information organizations reached — together with three that Hansmire particularly named — might recall any examples.
Stacey Pearson, a baby security guide and former Louisiana State Police sergeant who oversaw that state’s Clearinghouse for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters, mentioned she has by no means seen any instances demonstrating that these kits work, together with within the final two years since lawmakers discontinued the funding.
“I don’t perceive why we’re going again to this,” mentioned Pearson, who spoke with the newsrooms lately and for his or her earlier investigation. “It wasn’t a good suggestion in 2023 and it’s not a good suggestion now.”
Regardless of the shortage of proof, Pearson mentioned firms like NCIDP are in a position to revenue off the kits by advertising and marketing them as half of a bigger youngster security program, a technique that makes opposing lawmakers look as if they’re in opposition to defending kids. Texas allotted practically $6 million for the kits between 2021 and 2023.
Lawmakers didn’t clarify their reasoning once they determined to cease paying for the kits in 2023. Republican state Sen. Joan Huffman, who chairs the excessive chamber’s Finance Committee, instructed the newsrooms on the time that each the Home and the Senate had agreed to take away the funding “after overview and consideration.”
Throughout this 12 months’s budgeting course of, Democratic state Rep. Armando Martinez proposed including $2 million to the Home’s funds to supply kits to households with kids in kindergarten via second grade.
Martinez didn’t reply to an interview request.
State Rep. Greg Bonnen, who chairs the Home Appropriations Committee, didn’t reply to interview requests or written questions.
Bonnen was among the many 33 lawmakers who voted in opposition to Campbell’s invoice that established the kid identification package funding 4 years in the past. The newsrooms tried to achieve a handful of these legislators, however none responded.
Huffman and the Senate have to this point chosen to not restore this system’s funding. Huffman declined the newsrooms’ interview requests.
“Your entire funds course of is ongoing,” she wrote in an emailed assertion. “No remaining selections have been made on most points.”
Legislators from the 2 chambers will proceed hashing out the variations between their funds proposals in a joint committee that operates behind closed doorways. There’s no assure that the funding will make it into the ultimate funds, which lawmakers should cross earlier than the legislative session ends in early June.
Pearson cautioned legislators to query whether or not the kits are one of the best use of state funding, given the absence of documented success.
“My recommendation can be for lawmakers to ask themselves, ‘If this was your private cash and never the taxpayers’, would you spend it on this program?’” Pearson mentioned. “And the reply goes to be no.”
