[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IRS RESTRUCTURING LEGISLATION

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I further announce to all Senators that it 
will be my intention to call up and consider the IRS restructuring 
legislation no later than March 30, 1998. I have done that after 
consultation with Members on both sides of the aisle and, particularly, 
the chairman of the Finance Committee. He has assured me that he is 
very dedicated to getting this done. We found out last year in our 
hearings in the Finance Committee that, in fact, the abuses we had 
heard about were occurring.

  The House passed a bill that made some very positive changes and sent 
that over to the Senate right at the end of the session. We believe 
that we are finding out still other problems that exist, and that that 
bill can be strengthened. We have given our word, frankly, on both 
sides of the aisle, that we are going to deal with this issue and we 
are going to deal with it in a timely way. I think the Finance 
Committee may have another hearing or two, although I am not limiting 
it to that. I didn't ask the chairman how many more he wanted to have. 
We heard from the Secretary of Treasury last week and the new IRS 
Commissioner, Mr. Rossotti about their reorganization plans. We are 
still learning things that are happening in order to maybe try to 
change the culture at IRS, but at the same time we are continuously 
finding additional problems that have not been addressed in the bill 
that came across from the House. I believe we can have whatever 
additional hearings that we need to have and have a markup and have 
this legislation on the floor of the Senate by the end of March.
  The only reason why I didn't want to narrow it down more than that, 
frankly, is we have a number of issues we have to deal with in March, 
as Senator Daschle knows, such as NATO enlargement, the budget, 
supplemental appropriations, which I presume will involve at least a 
part, or all of IMF, as well as this issue. Now, I believe this issue 
may not take that much time. But we have to make sure that we have 
looked at the entire schedule for March and we have allowed appropriate 
time to consider this very important issue of restructuring of the IRS. 
I think this is a good agreement and we should move forward with it.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I only want to acknowledge, again, the 
extraordinary leadership in our caucus that this Senate has benefited 
from, thanks to Senator Kerrey, on the issue of IRS reform. He and 
Congressman Portman were the two chairs of the IRS commission that 
delved into all of these issues. They formulated the policy, convinced 
the administration, and worked to resolve many outstanding differences. 
So I appreciate very much their tenacious leadership in this area and, 
again, thank them for their efforts in bringing us to this point. We 
will, at long last, resolve this matter.
  I am told that 1\1/2\ million taxpayers have been adversely affected 
by IRS activity since the House passed its reform legislation last 
year. We need to put an end to that, and we need to find ways in which 
to ensure that the American people and the IRS have a clear message: 
The old days are gone. The time for reform of the IRS is here.
  The Senate, on a bipartisan basis, thanks to the leadership of 
Senator Kerrey is committed to that. We will send the bill to the 
President well before the April 15 filing time for taxes for the last 
calendar year.
  I thank the majority leader, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. KERREY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska is recognized.

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