Texas state legislators dropped efforts to spend tens of millions of {dollars} to purchase what consultants name ineffective little one identification kits weeks after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported that lawmakers were again trying to fund the program.
That is the second consecutive price range cycle wherein the Legislature thought-about buying the merchandise, which promise to assist discover lacking youngsters, solely to reverse course after the information organizations documented the dearth of proof that the kits work.
ProPublica and the Tribune initially printed their findings in a 2023 investigation that exposed the state had spent millions of dollars on child identification kits made by a Waco-based firm referred to as the Nationwide Youngster Identification Program, run by former NFL participant Kenny Hansmire. He had a historical past of authorized and enterprise troubles, in accordance with public information, and though inexpensive options have been out there to lawmakers, Hansmire used outdated and exaggerated statistics about lacking youngsters to assist increase gross sales.
He additionally managed to develop connections with highly effective Texas legislators who supported his initiatives. In 2021, Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell authored a invoice that created a Texas little one security program. The measure all however assured any state funding would go to Hansmire’s enterprise every time lawmakers allotted cash for little one identification kits. That yr, the state awarded his firm about $5.7 million for the kits.
Two years later, each the Home and the Senate proposed spending tens of millions extra on this system. However when the ultimate price range was printed, a few month after the newsrooms’ investigation, legislators had pulled the funding. They declined to reply questions on why.
Funding for this system appeared once more on this yr’s Home price range. State Rep. Armando Martinez, a Democratic member of the decrease chamber’s price range committee, prompt allotting $2 million to purchase the kits for college kids in kindergarten by means of the second grade. The Senate, nonetheless, didn’t embody that funding in its model of the price range.
The newsrooms printed a narrative in early Might concerning the proposed spending plan. The ultimate model of the price range that lawmakers handed this week once more had no designated funding for the identification kits.
Campbell, Martinez and the leaders of the Home and Senate price range committees didn’t reply to the newsrooms’ interview requests for this story or written questions on why the funding didn’t make the ultimate reduce.
Hansmire didn’t reply to an interview request this week. In a previous response, he instructed the newsrooms he’d resolved his monetary troubles and stated that his firm’s kits have helped establish lacking youngsters, although he didn’t present any concrete examples. Hansmire instructed reporters to achieve out to “any policeman,” naming a number of departments particularly. The newsrooms contacted quite a lot of them. Of the dozen Texas regulation enforcement companies that responded to the queries, none may establish one case the place the kits helped discover a runaway or kidnapped little one.
Stacey Pearson, a baby security guide who beforehand oversaw the Louisiana Clearinghouse for Lacking and Exploited Kids, stated legislators made the proper choice to eradicate the identification kits from the price range as a result of there isn’t any information proving they really assist enhance youngsters’ security. She stays upset that Texas lawmakers proceed to offer this system any consideration and hopes they gained’t ponder the funding sooner or later.
“Each greenback and each minute, each hour that you just spend on a program like this, is a greenback and a minute and an hour that you may’t spend on one thing that’s extra promising or extra sound,” stated Pearson.
