South OC Times

U.S. Representative Young Kim (CA-40) has joined forces with Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) to introduce the bipartisan Porch Pirates Act, aiming to combat the rising issue of mail theft.

With online shopping on the rise, studies indicate that one in five Americans have experienced porch piracy, resulting in millions of dollars in stolen goods annually. The proposed Porch Pirate Act seeks to apply identical penalties for theft of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail and packages from commercial and private carriers such as Amazon, FedEx, and UPS.

"Americans shouldn’t have to worry whether their mail will arrive safely. Unfortunately, rising mail theft is a real problem in our communities," said Rep. Young Kim. "The punishment for mail thieves shouldn’t depend on which carrier the stolen package came from. That’s why I worked with Rep. Dean Phillips to introduce the Porch Pirate Act, which would right this wrong and ensure mail thieves are held accountable no matter what package they steal."

Rep. Dean Phillips added, "Porch pirates target packages delivered by private carriers like UPS, Amazon, and FedEx because they know online shoppers have little recourse to recoup losses under current law. That’s why it’s time to make porch piracy a federal crime, just as it already is for USPS deliveries, and hold thieves accountable for their crimes."

Rep. Katie Porter highlighted the impact on Americans who rely on deliveries: "Porch pirates plunder millions of packages each year, hurting Americans who rely on deliveries to get food, medicine, and other living essentials." She emphasized that if a pillaged package was delivered by a private carrier, it can be harder to get justice than for packages delivered by the Postal Service.

Rep. Steven Horsford noted the importance of addressing this threat: "Many Nevadans rely on home deliveries for essential goods, which is why it’s so important to address the rising threat of package theft." He stressed that as online shopping becomes a daily necessity, protecting communities from porch piracy is crucial.

Reps. Kim and Phillips were supported by several other representatives including Colin Allred (TX-32), Jim Costa (CA-21), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), John Garamendi (CA-08), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Susie Lee (NV-03), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Scott Peters (CA-50), Katie Porter (CA-47), Bradley Schneider (IL-10), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Charles Fleischmann (TN-03), Jake LaTurner (KS-02), Lloyd Smucker (PA-11), Michelle Steel (CA-45), Claudia Tenney (NY-24), William Timmons (SC-04), Jefferson Van Drew (NJ-02) and Beth Van Duyne (TX-24) in introducing the bill.

In June 2024, Rep. Kim along with Rep. Jimmy Panetta introduced another bipartisan effort named Maximizing Agency Integration on Letter Theft Act or MAIL Theft Act(H.R. 8596). This act aims at combating nationwide increase in mail theft through federal agency coordination prioritizing this issue for federal law enforcement.