The head of the Missouri Department of Revenue says his agency is not forwarding electronic copies of documents from Missouri citizens to the federal government.
Director Brian Long told the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability that once he heard the allegations, he questioned other officials and employees within the Department of Revenue about it.
“I was repeatedly and independently assured that these scanned source documents, as part of the license process, are not, nor is there any plans, to share them, again, with the federal government or any third-party vendor," Long said.
Long and Deputy Director John Mollenkamp told the committee they now require documents from state residents, including conceal-carry endorsements, to be scanned into a computer system as part of an effort to cut down on fraud. State Representative Todd Richardson (R, Poplar Bluff) says, though, he’s still skeptical about the agency’s intentions.
“I’ve got concerns just taking what the department testified to on face value," Richardson said. "The collecting of these source documents and storing them in a state database, whether that information’s being shared with anyone or not, I’ve got deep concerns about the state collecting and holding that much data.”
Richardson is sponsoring a bill that would bar the Department of Revenue from retaining copies of source documents used to obtain driver’s licenses, conceal-carry endorsements and other licenses. Some Republican lawmakers, including Casey Guernsey of Bethany and Paul Curtman of Pacific, have accused the agency of forwarding scanned documents to the Department of Homeland Security, and suggested that it’s part of an effort by the Obama Administration to collect data on gun owners in Missouri.
Follow Marshall Griffin on Twitter: @MarshallGReport
