Senate Judiciary hears bill to require criminal-history checks for employees with access to federal tax data

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, members heard testimony on Senate Bill 30, which would require the Kansas Secretary of Labor to conduct state and national criminal-history record checks, including fingerprinting, for employees who have access to federal tax information (FTI) received directly from the Internal Revenue Service.

Natalie Scott, the reviser who briefed the committee, said the bill amends two Kansas statutes to add the Secretary of Labor to the list of entities that may receive specified criminal-history information. “Senate Bill 30 requires the Secretary of Labor to conduct a state and national criminal history record check on those employees who have access to tax information that comes directly from the IRS,” Scott said.

The bill would amend K.S.A. 22-4714 to add the Secretary of Labor to the subsection authorizing release of adult convictions, adult non-convictions, adult diversions and juvenile adjudications. It would also amend K.S.A. 75-5702 to require that employees who have or will be granted access to FTI be fingerprinted and submit to state and national criminal-history checks. The bill adds a definition of “employee” to include persons who have applied for employment or are currently employed and who have or will have access to the tax information.

Amber Schultz, Kansas secretary of labor, said the department brought the bill after working with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and federal partners to ensure compliance with FBI and U.S. Department of Labor requirements tied to participation in the Treasury Offset Program, which the Department of Labor uses to recoup fraudulent overpayments. “So I think the crimes that we are looking for in this criminal background check are financial crimes because it is directly related to receiving FTI, federal tax information directly from the IRS,” Schultz said. She told the committee the department would prefer any narrowing of the scope still conform to federal requirements for collecting on overpayments.

Bob Stewart, executive officer of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, said the KBI supports the bill and has worked with the Department of Labor on language to satisfy the FBI’s requirements for interstate access to records. Stewart said the KBI can obtain the full set of records from the FBI but that, while the KBI can limit at a high level which categories of records an agency may receive, the KBI cannot, in practice, filter incoming data by specific crimes for every agency request. “We can certainly have always been able to get Kansas fingerprint background checks, through your authority, but we can't have access to those other states without making sure we're complying with what the FBI wants,” Stewart said.

Committee members asked whether the bill limits access to juvenile records or to only financial crimes, and whether an age threshold applies. Scott and Schultz said the statutory language as drafted would permit access to juvenile adjudications and that the bill contains no age limit. Schultz said the department would be open to narrowing the scope to focus on financial crimes if the change remained consistent with U.S. Department of Labor rules. KBI staff said they could control which categories of records are released to an agency but could not easily segment results by specific charges.

The committee did not take a vote on the bill during the hearing. The chair closed the hearing on Senate Bill 30 and noted the committee will meet again the following day.

Ending: The hearing record contains written testimony from the Department of Labor and the KBI; proponents only testified in person and on WebEx during the session. No committee vote or formal referral was recorded on the hearing transcript.