[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 15, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2233-H2235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TAXPAYER KNOWLEDGE OF IRS INVESTIGATIONS ACT
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 1026) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to
permit the release of information regarding the status of certain
investigations, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1026
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Taxpayer Knowledge of IRS
Investigations Act''.
SEC. 2. RELEASE OF INFORMATION REGARDING THE STATUS OF
CERTAIN INVESTIGATIONS.
(a) In General.--Section 6103(e) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following
new paragraph:
``(11) Disclosure of information regarding status of
investigation of violation of this section.--In the case of a
person who provides to the Secretary information indicating a
violation of section 7213, 7213A, or 7214 with respect to any
return or return information of such person, the Secretary
may disclose to such person (or such person's designee)--
``(A) whether an investigation based on the person's
provision of such information has been initiated and whether
it is open or closed,
``(B) whether any such investigation substantiated such a
violation by any individual, and
``(C) whether any action has been taken with respect to
such individual (including whether a referral has been made
for prosecution of such individual).''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to disclosures made on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin.
General Leave
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend
their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1026, currently
under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Wisconsin?
There was no objection.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. At this time, I would like to thank Mr. Kelly,
a member of the Ways and Means Committee, along with the minority
ranking member for their diligence in uncovering this problem also. You
are seeing a theme here, Mr. Speaker, which is both the Republican and
Democratic side of the Ways and Means Committee in conducting oversight
saw abuses that needed to be fixed. We are fixing these abuses so that
they can't happen again, in this statute.
For the purpose of describing this particular legislation, I would
like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), the author of the bill.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the chairman for yielding me this
time.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1026, as has been described, this actually had come
before Congress before. Dr. Boustany and Mr. Roskam have presented
this. This is about taxpayer knowledge of IRS investigations.
Now, this would make sense to almost everybody to understand what
exactly has been going on. Under section 6103 in the Tax Code, it is a
felony to disclose or to compromise people's tax information and give
it to other groups to work with. We shouldn't have to pass laws like
this; but unfortunately, laws are not made and governments are not run
by angels but they are run by men, so we have to have oversight over
what has happened.
This piece of legislation gives the same rights to those people whose
information has been violated, whose information has been compromised,
as is given to IRS personnel. We found out 2 years ago, and Dr. John
Eastman really made the point of it for the National Organization for
Marriage, their tax information on their people, their members, was
given out, and it went to Human Rights Campaign. Now, you would think
by the name of that that it makes sense, Human Rights Campaign, those
are probably good people, but you cannot divulge private tax
information to anybody else. It is a felony to do that. But section
6103 also prevented those whose tax information was divulged, they
couldn't get information on it. They weren't allowed to even inquire
and were not allowed to be informed of what was taking place. Did it in
fact take place? Well, we knew it took place because it was out in the
public.
Secondly, who was it who divulged it? We don't know. We can't talk to
you about that because that is protected under the Tax Code.
Well, is there an investigation? We can't tell you that either,
because that is protected. We can't tell you who it was who divulged
it, who they divulged it to, is there an investigation or is there not
an investigation. And at the end of it, was there proof found that this
was actually done? If so, what is the penalty for it? Those are basic
tenets of what we are as Americans.
So I submit to people, this is not a Republican or Democrat issue, as
we know it--Mr. Lewis is a good friend of mine--it is American tenets.
It is what we firmly believe as Americans. Nobody should be able to do
that to us; and if they do that to us, we should be able to inquire
about the status of that. This piece of legislation gives every single
taxpayer the same rights as those doing the investigation, those doing
the leaks and the findings.
Now, if we are to restore the American people's confidence in our
form of government, this is essential. We can't allow these things to
happen and then say, well, we could have helped you except for one
thing in the Tax Code, section 6103(e). What is going to happen, those
people are going to look at us and say: I have absolutely no idea what
you are talking about. We say: Well, we can't really let you know what
happened.
So if it really is an American principle and if we really do need to
have faith and trust and feel that we are all being treated the same
way and in an honest way, and if that is the only way to restore the
confidence that the people need to have and the trust they have in our
form of government and those of us who they have sent to represent
them, then this type of legislation has to take place.
I am so proud of what our Committee on Ways and Means is doing today
under Chairman Ryan and under Mr. Roskam. What are we doing? We are
protecting taxpayers and taxpayers' rights. This is so fundamentally
American. This shouldn't be anything you even have to stop and think
about.
So what we are proposing today under H.R. 1026 is that the taxpayers
[[Page H2234]]
have the same information and the same knowledge of what is going on
with their accounts, what has been divulged, who divulged it, is there
an ongoing investigation, what were the findings of that investigation
and who is being held responsible, and more important than that, who is
being held accountable? These are felonies. Until we get to the point
where the American people have faith and trust in us again and restore
their confidence, we have nothing.
In America's House, we as Members have got to make sure that every
single day we safeguard the rights of every single American.
Unfortunately, this has not taken place in the past, and we have to
move forward with it.
I do know that today being April 15 is a day that most people dread.
Listen, tax revenues are necessary. We need to have an agency to
collect them. But by the same token, when it turns out that those
people in that agency--and not all of them, but we have some people in
there that are violating individuals' rights, then we have to come
forward and we have to champion legislation that protects the same
people who voted us into office and sent us to defend them.
Mr. LEWIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1026, the Taxpayer Knowledge
of IRS Investigations Act.
Earlier this afternoon, the House passed H.R. 1058, the Taxpayer Bill
of Rights Act. Two of the rights included in that bill were the right
to confidentiality, the right to be informed. This bill complements
that legislation.
Generally, tax returns are confidential and may not be disclosed
unless authorized by the Internal Revenue Code. Section 6103 of the
Code provides certain exceptions. These do not include telling a
taxpayer if there has been an unauthorized disclosure of his or her tax
return information. Fines, criminal penalties, or both apply to the
unauthorized inspection or disclosure of tax return information.
H.R. 1026 would allow the Internal Revenue Service to update a
taxpayer on the status of investigations of unauthorized disclosure of
his or her tax return. They would be allowed to know whether the
investigation started, is open, or is closed.
This is a simple, commonsense bill. Taxpayers have a right to know if
their tax return information has been compromised.
{time} 1415
I want to thank my friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, my
Republican colleague; the ranking member of the subcommittee; and the
chairman for bringing this bill to the floor today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time
is remaining on each side, please?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) has
17\1/2\ minutes remaining, and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis)
has 18 minutes remaining.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.
This one, this case, really boils my blood. Let me just try and
describe in a simple way what Mr. Kelly is fixing here and what
happened to honest, hard-working taxpayers in America in this case.
There is an organization that is a nonprofit organization advocating
freely in our free speech society for their view on a cause--I won't
even say what cause it is--advocating for their view, a charitable
nonprofit.
The Internal Revenue Service took their confidential filing and list
of their donors to their cause, and the Internal Revenue Service broke
the law and leaked it to an outside individual not with the Internal
Revenue Service. This list of donors to this cause went out on the
Internet. It was released to the public by the opponents of this cause.
Guess what happened. The people who confidentially, privately
donated--exercising their free speech rights to advocate for a cause--
found themselves intimidated, found themselves harassed because their
personal, private information had been released by the IRS to the
public.
This organization asked the Internal Revenue Service: What just
happened? How did this private document with the private information of
our donors to our cause get out there on the Internet and hosted on the
page by our opponents of our cause?
The Internal Revenue Service in turn said: We can't answer your
question.
The advocates of the cause, trying to defend the privacy of their
donors--a free speech right--said: Well, are you investigating this?
Are you looking into this? Are you holding somebody responsible? Is
there an investigation into how this private information got out on the
Internet?
They said: We can't answer that question.
Unbelievable--that is not freedom; that is not liberty. That is not
how this IRS will ever act again if we have any say-so over this.
That is why Mr. Kelly is writing this bill, to make sure that
people's privacy is protected and that it is not leaked to the public
or to the opponents of a cause that they care about.
I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam), the
chairman of the subcommittee.
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, you are noticing a theme here, and that is
intimidation and impunity. That is a bad combination when a culture of
impunity develops and an agency says: We can do what we want, when we
want, and how we want to; and we can intimidate who we want, how we
want, and when we want to.
Said another way, here is what the IRS did: the IRS broke the law,
and then they used the law to conceal it. They broke the law, and they
used the law. That is a manipulation. That is a manipulation that no
side of this Congress is going to stand for.
That is a manipulation that has to be answered. That is a
manipulation that has to be put down, that we cannot be complicit with.
You cannot break the law and then use the law to conceal it. That is
exactly what happened in this case.
In other words, the IRS releases this information in violation of the
law; and then, when they are asked about it, they say: Well, we would
just love to tell you about it, but it is against the law for us to
tell you about it.
That is ridiculous. That is so jarring that now we have had a
situation and we have had a culture that has developed over a period of
time at the Internal Revenue Service where breaking the law and using
the law to conceal it is considered what? It is considered normal.
I am proud of the House today because the sensibilities of the House
of Representatives is to say that is not normal, that is not
acceptable, that is not right, and that will not be tolerated.
Mr. LEWIS. Mr. Speaker, I support the piece of legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly) for the purpose of closing.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I agree with everything my
colleagues have said. I think Americans need to look at what is going
on in their House--America's House--today and to understand that we do
understand the difference between right and wrong. We also understand
that sometimes absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We started years ago looking into this. We still don't have all the
answers. I would just tell some of our fellow citizens that we are not
done yet because we knew those things have happened.
I think what the chairman has expressed and Mr. Roskam has expressed
is the outrage we feel because it is not only our responsibility, it is
our duty to protect every single one of America's citizens. To divulge
the information that was divulged and to do it in such a way to use the
law to break the law makes absolutely no sense to any of us.
This isn't really about either side of the aisle. This is about all
of us, together, doing what is right for the American people. This
should reconfirm to the American people that we are here acting in
their best interest and defending them every single day that we sit in
session and that we sit in office.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
[[Page H2235]]
Ryan) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1026, as
amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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