Sen. Steve Daines
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) next week plans to reintroduce a bill that would prevent convicted child molesters from receiving government-funded pensions, according to his office.
Sen. Daines first introduced the Denying Pensions to Convicted Child Molesters Act of 2019, S. 1264, in May 2019, but the bill stalled in the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Reintroduction of the measure will follow the January 2020 release of a report from the Indian Health Service (IHS), which contracted with Integritas Creative Solutions LLC to carry out a patient safety medical quality assurance review to examine how IHS can significantly improve the identification of, and response to complaints of patient abuse, especially sexual abuse of minors.
The review uses the case of convicted child molester and former IHS pediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber “as a cautionary precedent” about how IHS failed to remove an employee credibly suspected of sexual abuse throughout a decades-long career, according to the report.
“IHS failed us all when it ignored warnings and enabled Stanley Weber to perpetrate his abuses against his young patients. Despite being convicted for his crimes, Weber was able to collect his taxpayer-funded pension for years. That is not acceptable,” Sen. Daines said. “I am reintroducing my bill to ensure taxpayers never again fund the pensions of convicted child molesters.”
IHS in March announced the termination of pension and benefits for Weber.
“It is outrageous that a convicted pedophile was receiving taxpayer funded pension checks while serving time in prison,” said Sen. Daines on March 15. “I will be reintroducing my bill to fix this horribly flawed system and ensure no predator receives a dime of taxpayers’ money.”