[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 5, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S1322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TAXPAYER PROTECTION ACT OF 2014
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Taxpayer
Protection Act of 2014. This bill would require the independent IRS
oversight board to better fulfill its obligation to protect the
constitutional rights of American taxpayers. The history of the IRS
offers abundant examples of the agency trampling on these rights. In
the most recent controversy, the IRS subjected applications from
conservative groups that were seeking tax-exempt status to heightened
scrutiny. Delaying these groups' applications suggests an effort to
chill the constitutional right of speech and association by groups that
hold conservative views.
The details that have emerged are truly alarming. The IRS has
admitted that it deliberately targeted conservative groups'
applications for tax-exempt status for extra review if they included
such words as ``tea party,'' ``patriots,'' or ``9/11'' in their names
or they criticized how this country is being run or if their purpose
were to address government spending, government debt, taxes, or simply
to make America a better place. Incredible.
These inappropriate criteria stayed in place for more than 18 months
and resulted in substantial delays in processing the applications of
many different groups. In some cases, the applications remained
outstanding for more than 2 years.
The IRS also sought to compel some of the targeted groups to divulge
their membership list. IRS officials have subsequently admitted there
was absolutely no reason for agency personnel to have sought that kind
of information.
Such behavior, unfortunately, is not a one-time aberration. A May
2013 ``Time'' magazine article notes that the IRS has been involved in
scandals going back at least as far as the Kennedy administration,
which used the service to investigate so-called rightwing groups.
President Nixon employed a secret IRS operation to investigate and
audit political opponents. During the Johnson administration, the IRS
targeted antiwar activists.
In the decades since, civil rights groups, political activists from
both the conservative and liberals ends of the spectrum, and
whistleblowers have been subjected to intimidating and discriminatory
scrutiny by the IRS.
In 1997, the Senate Finance Committee held 3 days of hearings
instigated by reports of IRS abuses. One type of abuse was the so-
called Blue Sky Assessment, which then-committee chairman William Roth
characterized as agents making tax assessments that had no basis in
fact or law, and were, in some instances, simply levied to hurt the
taxpayer. Some witnesses had to have their identities concealed out of
fear of retaliation for their testimony. As witness No. 1--an IRS
agent--stated, `` . . . abuse of the taxpaying public occurs when the
IRS improperly and sometimes illegally uses its vast power in the
process of implementing some type of enforcement of the tax laws.''
This agent went on to note it wasn't the IRS Code which abused
taxpayers but rather how it was being implemented in an unfair,
intimidating, and discriminatory way.
I note these 1997 hearings in particular because they coincided with
an effort to reform the IRS, culminating in the IRS Restructuring and
Reform Act. The act made a number of changes to the structure of the
IRS and the manner in which it administers the tax laws. One such
reform was the creation of the IRS Oversight Board.
By law, the Board is charged with ensuring taxpayers are treated
properly by the IRS, and the Board is designed to be independent of the
agency. Of the required nine members, seven must be Senate-confirmed
appointees who have professional experience or expertise in business
and tax administration. The IRS Reform Act also requires IRS employees
be terminated for violating the constitutional rights of taxpayers.
The current IRS scandal was not, however, brought to light by this
IRS Oversight Board. Instead, these abuses came to the public's and our
attention through a May 2013 report by the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration. Following the release of the inspector
general's report, the Oversight Board released a statement saying it
would work with the IRS and the IG, among others, to meet its statutory
responsibility to protect taxpayers. That is the whole purpose of this
Board, and I believe it should do much more than just work with IRS
officials and the IG.
So my bill would strengthen its oversight role by requiring reporting
to Congress. My bill would ensure the existing laws, which are rooted
in the response to prior IRS scandals, work as they should. It would
require that the Oversight Board report to Congress each and every year
on allegations of abuse, of taxpayers' constitutional rights, on the
number of employees who were terminated for such violations, on why
employees against whom allegations were raised were not terminated, and
on the effectiveness of internal controls, if any, that the IRS has put
in place to prevent the unfair targeting of taxpayers.
The IRS's history of abuses demonstrates that Congress must be ever
vigilant in protecting taxpayers. The agency's power allows it to
pervade the most sensitive aspects of Americans' private lives.
Irrespective of whether those singled out are liberal or conservative,
Democratic or Republican, Independent or Green Party members,
irrespective of their personal views, the targeting of private citizens
for exercising their First Amendment rights is way out of bounds. It is
illegal behavior and cannot be tolerated.
It has been said the power to tax is the power to destroy. The
American people cannot and will not tolerate any abuse of that power.
I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring this bill and let us
pass it to help protect the most fundamental rights guaranteed by our
Constitution against abuse by government's ability to tax.
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