Two years in the past, Texas lawmakers quietly cut millions of dollars in funding for kits supposed to assist observe down lacking youngsters, after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed there was no proof that they had aided regulation enforcement to find misplaced youngsters.
The corporate that made the kits had used outdated and exaggerated statistics on lacking youngsters to bolster their gross sales and charged for the supplies when comparable merchandise had been accessible for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 bill 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 regulation a long-standing partnership between the state and NCIDP that goes again greater than twenty years. Her laws, signed into regulation that June, additionally specified that every time the state allotted funding for such supplies, the Texas Schooling Company should buy identification kits which are “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 history of failed businesses 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 on account of his function in an alleged scheme to defraud traders.
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 advised the information organizations that the state ought to prioritize something that may pace up the return of a lacking baby. Campbell advised lawmakers in a listening to that the bipartisan measure, which was dropped at her by Hansmire and Patrick, was necessary to “shield our youngsters.”
Patrick, Campbell and Hansmire didn’t reply to interview requests for this story. Hansmire beforehand advised 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 youngsters, and instructed reporters to ask “any policeman” concerning the kits’ usefulness. Nonetheless, not one of the dozen Texas regulation enforcement companies that the information organizations reached — together with three that Hansmire particularly named — might recall any examples.
Stacey Pearson, a toddler security advisor 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 dearth of proof, Pearson mentioned corporations like NCIDP are in a position to revenue off the kits by advertising and marketing them as half of a bigger baby security program, a method that makes opposing lawmakers look as if they’re towards defending youngsters. 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, advised the newsrooms on the time that each the Home and the Senate had agreed to take away the funding “after evaluate and consideration.”
Throughout this yr’s budgeting course of, Democratic state Rep. Armando Martinez proposed adding $2 million to the Home’s funds to supply kits to households with youngsters 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 towards Campbell’s invoice that established the kid identification package funding 4 years in the past. The newsrooms tried to succeed in a handful of these legislators, however none responded.
Huffman and the Senate have to this point chosen not to restore the program’s funding. Huffman declined the newsrooms’ interview requests.
“Your entire funds course of is ongoing,” she wrote in an emailed assertion. “No closing choices 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 could 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.”
