[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12599-S12600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FAIRCLOTH:
  S. 1555. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
restructure and reform the Internal Revenue Service, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Finance.


  the internal revenue service oversight, restructuring and tax code 
                        elimination act of 1997

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, today I am introducing S. 1555, the 
``Internal Revenue Service Oversight, Restructuring and Tax Code 
Elimination Act of 1997.'' This legislation establishes an oversight 
board composed of private citizens to review the policies and practices 
of our nation's tax collection agency. The measure also eliminates the 
existing tax code by December 31, 2000, and eliminates the Internal 
Revenue Service by the end of the Year 2000 fiscal year.
  Mr. President, the American people have been telling this Congress 
that all

[[Page S12600]]

is not right at the Internal Revenue Service, and it is time for the 
Congress to do something about it. Of course, no one enjoys paying 
their taxes, but the American people voluntarily comply with the tax 
code to a degree that is the envy of governments around the world. They 
do so because they want to do what is right. They deserve to be treated 
fairly, and they deserve a tax system that supports working families, 
not one that punishes them.
  This past September, the Senate Committee on Finance held hearings in 
which taxpayers described the many abuses they have suffered at the 
hands of the Internal Revenue Service. The general theme of those 
hearings was an agency which has become arrogant and unresponsive to 
the American people, ruining businesses and causing considerable 
suffering to the men and women who were unlucky enough to be the focus 
of IRS scrutiny. For most Americans, those hearings were an all too 
familiar reflection of a painful episode in their own lives.
  Mr. President, something must be done about the Internal Revenue 
Service and the massive Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Our tax code is 
incomprehensible to all but a few tax attorneys who make their living 
off of the current chaos created by our tax laws. What is worse, the 
agency charged with enforcing our tax laws has developed procedures to 
target their auditing efforts at middle class taxpayers.
  The time has come to get rid of the I.R.S., get rid of our 
nightmarish tax code, and create an oversight board composed entirely 
of citizens from outside of the I.R.S. to keep watch over that agency 
until the date when it ceases to exist.
  To carry out those objectives, I have introduced S. 1555, the 
Internal Revenue Service Oversight, Restructuring and Tax Code 
Elimination Act of 1997. This legislation establishes an oversight 
board composed of nine members, each of whom are from the private 
sector, and at least one of whom must be an owner or manager of a small 
business. This oversight board will be responsible for reviewing the 
policies and practices of the Internal Revenue Service.
  Among the specific areas the board will oversee are the agency's 
auditing procedures and collections practices, as well as the agency's 
procurement policies for information technology. Procurement at the 
I.R.S. has resulted in outrageous waste and misuse of taxpayer funds, 
such as the decision to spend nearly $4 billion to develop a new 
computer system, which officials now concede has been a complete 
failure.
  Creating an oversight board to rein in the IRS is just the first 
step. S. 1555 also calls for the tax code to be terminated as of 
December 31, 2000, with exceptions for Social Security and Railroad 
Retirement.

  My bill sets out several guidelines for the structure of a new tax 
code. The new code should apply a low rate to all Americans; require a 
supermajority of both Houses of Congress to raise taxes; provide tax 
relief for working Americans; protect the rights of taxpayers and 
reduce tax collection abuses; eliminate the bias against savings and 
investment; promote economic growth and job creation; encourage rather 
than penalize marriage and families; protect the integrity of Social 
Security and Medicare; and provide for a taxpayer-friendly collections 
process to replace the Internal Revenue Service.
  Mr. President, it is time to get rid of the I.R.S. and the massive 
and incomprehensible tax code in favor of a fairer, simpler system. I 
firmly believe that we will never be rid of our tax code until Congress 
sets out a specific deadline for its elimination. That is what my bill 
does. We should begin the national debate now over the form a new tax 
code should take. I have laid out a series of guidelines in this 
legislation for the new tax code. Without the current tax code, there 
is no need for the I.R.S., and it is my view that this agency is too 
entrenched in its bureaucratic ways to be reformed. It should simply be 
eliminated. Until the I.R.S. is gone, an oversight board is badly 
needed to protect the interests of the taxpayers, and act as a watchdog 
over this unaccountable agency. I urge my colleagues to support this 
legislation.
                                 ______