H.R. 4362 (112th): STOP Identity Theft Act of 2012

Introduced:
Apr 16, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL20]
Status:
Died (Passed House)
See Instead:
This bill was re-introduced as H.R. 744 on Feb 15, 2013. See H.R. 744 for current action on this subject.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

(About Ads | Advertise Here)
Status

This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on August 1, 2012 but was never passed by the Senate.

Progress
Introduced Apr 16, 2012
Referred to Committee Apr 16, 2012
Reported by Committee Jul 10, 2012
Passed House Aug 01, 2012
Cosponsors
13 cosponsors (9D, 4R) (show)
Committees

House Judiciary

Senate Judiciary

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To provide effective criminal prosecutions for certain identity thefts, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Aug 02, 2012.
4 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

GovTrack gets most information from THOMAS, which is updated generally one day after events occur. Activity since the last update may not be reflected here.

Citation

Click a format for a citation suggestion:

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

8/1/2012--Passed House without amendment.
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced.
The summary of that version is repeated here.) Stopping Tax Offenders and Prosecuting Identity Theft Act of 2012 or the STOP Identity Theft Act of 2012 - Calls for the Attorney General to:
(1) make use of all existing resources of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including task forces, to bring more perpetrators of tax return identity theft to justice; and
(2) take into account the need to concentrate efforts in areas of the country where the crime is most frequently reported, to coordinate with state and local authorities to prosecute and prevent such crime, and to protect vulnerable groups from becoming victims or otherwise being used in the offense.
Amends the federal criminal code to:
(1) define "means of identification" to mean any name or number used to identify a specific person (currently, any specific individual); and
(2) make tax fraud a predicate offense for aggravated identity theft.
Directs the Attorney General to include in the first annual DOJ performance report made more than nine months after the date of this Act's enactment information as to progress in implementing this Act regarding:
(1) information readily available to DOJ about trends in the incidence of tax return identity theft,
(2) the effectiveness of statutory tools in aiding DOJ in prosecuting it,
(3) recommendations on additional statutory tools that would aid in removing barriers to effective prosecution, and
(4) the status of implementing DOJ's March 2010 audit report on DOJ efforts to combat identity theft.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/2/hr4362.

Summary

H.R. 4362 would call for the Attorney General to do the following:

  1. Make use of all existing resources of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including task forces, to bring more perpetrators of tax return identity theft to justice; and
  2. Take into account the need to concentrate efforts in areas of the country where the crime is most frequently reported, to coordinate with state and local authorities to prosecute and prevent such crime, and to protect vulnerable groups from becoming victims or otherwise being used in the offense.

The bill would amend the federal criminal code to do the following:

  1. Define "means of identification" to mean any name or number used to identify a specific person (currently, any specific individual); and
  2. Make tax fraud a predicate offense for aggravated identity theft.

H.R. 4362 would direct the Attorney General to include in the first annual DOJ performance report made more than nine months after the date of this Act’s enactment information as to progress in implementing this Act regarding the following:

  1. Information readily available to DOJ about trends in the incidence of tax return identity theft;
  2. The effectiveness of statutory tools in aiding DOJ in prosecuting it;
  3. Recommendations on additional statutory tools that would aid in removing barriers to effective prosecution; and
  4. The status of implementing DOJ's March 2010 audit report on DOJ efforts to combat identity theft.

Cost

CBO expects that the legislation could result in a reallocation of DOJ resources, but they estimate that implementing the bill would have no significant net cost to the federal government.  Enacting H.R. 4362 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)