Sen. Husted joins bipartisan bill to return stolen refund checks to American taxpayers
WASHINGTON – Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) has joined Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Mark Warner’s (D-Va.) Recovery of Stolen Checks Act. This bipartisan bill would require the Department of Treasury to offer taxpayers who have had their Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paper refund checks stolen to receive their replacement refund checks through electronic deposit.
“Criminals are stealing IRS refund paper checks from the mail and selling them online. The Recovery of Stolen Checks Act provides a fix to an outdated policy by allowing taxpayers to direct-deposit their refund to reduce the risk of repeated fraud, which would lead to a faster and more secure process for families to receive their refunds. I’m supporting this commonsense bill to protect Ohioans from fraud and ensure their money gets to where it belongs,” said Husted.
This bill builds on Husted’s work to safeguard Americans from financial scams. Husted’s bipartisan bill, the Preventing Deep Fake Scams Act, would address data and identity theft or fraud fueled by artificial intelligence (AI)—commonly known as “deep fake” scams. The bill would establish a task force on AI in the financial services sector.
Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) cosponsored the Recovery of Stolen Checks Act.
This legislation passed the House of Representatives. Reps. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) and Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) sponsored the House version of the bill.
Background:
Criminals steal paper IRS refund checks from the mail and sell them on the dark web. One investigation found 4,000 to 5,000 stolen checks for sale every month.
Tax-refund theft is on the rise. Two U.S. Postal Service workers were charged in May in connection to a $63 million scheme to steal IRS refund checks.
The total number of stolen or lost checks for American taxpayers in April 2025 was 73,424.
Under current law, if an IRS refund check is stolen, the IRS can only issue the victimized taxpayer a replacement paper check. This leaves the taxpayer vulnerable to criminals who have already stolen their checks once and could steal them again.