[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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