Sen. Casey Pushes For 'Recovering Missing Children Act'

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey is spearheading an effort to make it legal for the IRS to release data to law enforcement agencies seeking missing and abducted children.

It is called the "Recovering Missing Children Act" and Sen. Casey has joined with Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi in sponsoring the measure. "It will simply clarify the law to specifically identify cases of missing and exploited children in the tax code provisions that providing for disclosure of tax return information for use in criminal investigations," Casey said. "We want to make sure that the tax code is not an obstacle to finding children who are missing."

Mr. Casey said a recent study by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found an examination of some 1,700 Social Security numbers of missing children and their abductors from a child-find database showed more than one-third had new addresses on file with the IRS. The use of social security numbers and data from tax filers could help lead law enforcement to missing or abducted children.

Right now, he added, the privacy laws surrounding IRS data prohibit release of that data. Mr. Casey said it's time to update the law so certain tax information can be released to legitimate investigative agencies.

Reported by Mark Abrams, KYW Newsradio