Concerns abound surrounding reports that the BOP prevented people in custody from accessing information about economic impact payments and receiving the aid, Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., said in the letter dated Wednesday. The bureau should provide information on the efforts it has taken to inform incarcerated people of their entitlement to the payment after a California federal court ruled that the IRS can't deny payments to people in custody, they said.
The Internal Revenue Service in May said that incarcerated people were not entitled to the economic impact payments, which were authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
. But the agency has since updated its online guidance to indicate that people in custody can claim the payments after U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton said on Oct. 14 that the IRS was wrong to deny those individuals the payments.--Additional reporting by Dylan Moroses. Editing by Vincent Sherry.
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