[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 54 (Thursday, March 28, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2090-S2091]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Wyden):
  S. 928. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
modernize and improve the Internal Revenue Service, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am pleased that my colleague, Finance 
Committee Ranking Member Wyden, will be joining me in introducing the 
Taxpayer First Act of 2019 later today. This legislation seeks to 
modernize the Internal Revenue Service, improve taxpayers' services, 
and strengthen taxpayer protections.
  The package of IRS reforms we will introduce today is the culmination 
of years of work by both the Senate Finance Committee and the House 
Ways and Means Committee. It is truly a bipartisan package that adopts 
provisions authored by committee members on both sides of the aisle of 
the House and the Senate.
  Former Chairman Hatch of Utah deserves a lot of credit for working to 
reach a bipartisan, bicameral agreement at the end of the last 
Congress, which is reflected in the legislation we will be introducing 
this afternoon.
  I know Senator Hatch put a lot of work into trying to get this 
legislation across the finish line last year. Unfortunately, it wasn't 
meant to be, due to both political realities and, maybe, time 
constraints--even more so.
  However, his work helped us get to where we are today. In other 
words, we are advancing a great deal of what Senator Hatch worked on, 
and our hope is that it will allow us to move quickly this year and 
finally get these commonsense reforms of the Internal Revenue Service 
enacted into law.
  Some of the IRS reforms in this legislation include establishing a 
truly independent Office of Appeals within the Internal Revenue 
Service. This will help ensure the playing field is not tilted against 
taxpayers when those taxpayers are in dispute with the Internal Revenue 
Service.
  To help bring the Internal Revenue Service into the 21st century, the 
legislation also would require the IRS to submit to Congress a plan to 
redesign the structure of the Agency to improve efficiency, enhance 
cyber security, and better meet taxpayer needs.
  It also includes a number of provisions to protect the taxpayers 
better from tax ID theft and improve taxpayer interaction with the IRS, 
should they become a victim of that crime. This includes creating a 
single point of contact in the IRS to help the taxpayers navigate the 
bureaucracy and resolve their issues as quickly as possible.
  To provide taxpayers with better protection against becoming such a 
victim in the first place, the legislation will expand to all taxpayers 
an IRS program that currently allows victims--and only victims--of tax 
ID theft to obtain a personalized PIN that better secures the identity 
of any taxpayer who asks for it.
  The legislation also puts in place new safeguards to protect 
taxpayers against recent IRS enforcement abuses of so-called 
structuring laws. On several occasions, the IRS used these laws to 
seize bank accounts of small business owners when no underlying 
criminal activity was present. This includes seizing $33,000 from a 
small business owner who operated a small restaurant in Arnolds Park, 
IA, for nearly 40 years. The IRS--on a whim, taking $33,000 from that 
small business--caused the business to close, and the owner did nothing 
wrong in the end. Provisions in our bill will help ensure these types 
of abuses never occur again.
  I would also like to note the improvements to the IRS whistleblower 
program that are contained in the bill.

[[Page S2091]]

  In 2006, I authored legislation establishing a mandatory Internal 
Revenue Service whistleblower program. Since it was established, the 
IRS whistleblower program has turned into one of the most effective 
programs addressing tax evasion, leading to the recovery of more than 
$5 billion in taxes that otherwise would have been lost to fraud.
  Unfortunately, too many IRS whistleblowers continue to be treated 
like a skunk at a picnic. They often wait for years, and while they are 
waiting for years, it is in the dark, with no indication of whether the 
information they provided to the IRS would ever lead to a successful 
recovery or whether their reward is even being processed.
  Moreover, they are often putting their careers on the line, exposing 
corporate tax shelters with no protection should their employer decide 
to retaliate.
  Provisions in our bill will help to address these issues by 
authorizing the IRS to communicate with whistleblowers, in certain 
instances, while protecting taxpayer privacy.
  What we are really saying is this: You ought to let these 
whistleblowers, who are patriotic people, trying to help the Federal 
Government collect money that wouldn't otherwise be collected--treat 
them like the patriotic citizens they are.
  The bill would also extend anti-retaliation provisions to IRS 
whistleblowers that are presently afforded to whistleblowers under 
other whistleblower laws--the False Claims Act, which I authored in 
1986, as well as the more recent Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which came out of 
another committee that I didn't serve on.
  Finally, the bill includes modifications to the private debt 
collection program. I have long been a proponent of this program as a 
way to tackle the tax gap and to promote tax fairness. It works by 
assigning certain tax debts, which the IRS otherwise would not attempt 
to collect, to an outside contractor to pursue.
  In other words, if the IRS isn't going to go after all the money that 
is owed to the taxpayers--and we don't want $1 more than what people 
owe, but we want every dollar that people do owe--if they aren't going 
to go after it, we ought to find some way to go after it. That is why 
we have outside contractors pursuing some of these issues that the IRS 
isn't going to pursue.
  Recent quarterly revenue reports demonstrate the program has the 
potential to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue on an 
annual basis.
  I understand some of my colleagues, particularly on the House Ways 
and Means Committee, have been concerned that the program has been too 
heavily focused on lower income taxpayers. We listened to these 
concerns, and we worked to develop a sensible compromise while yet 
strengthening the long-term viability of this program.
  These are just a few of the provisions in this bill. There are many 
others that will go a long way toward making the IRS work better for 
taxpayers.
  I also know that some of my colleagues have additional ideas that we 
were unable to include in this package. I want them to know that I see 
this legislation as a first step toward reforming the IRS and 
strengthening taxpayers' protections.
  I agree there is more that we can do. I am committed to evaluating 
additional proposals with input from all of our colleagues on reforms 
that could be included in a package of additional IRS reforms later 
this Congress.
  But first things first. Companion legislation is being introduced in 
the House, which I hope the Senate will receive in the near future.
  I ask all of my colleagues to join me and Ranking Member Wyden in 
supporting this bipartisan bill.
                                 ______