[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 2, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S478-S479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2132

  Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, last year, I introduced a handful of 
bills that would help the IRS do its job better. One of those bills is 
called the IRS Customer Service Improvement Act. This bill simply says 
that IRS staffers cannot perform any union tasks during the tax season, 
which seems to make sense. It doesn't keep them from doing it through 
the rest of the year. It is just not during the busy tax season.

  According to the Treasury, in fiscal year 2019, 1,400 Treasury 
employees used over 350,000 hours of taxpayer-funded union time. It 
cost $17 million. Of course, that is kind of like chump change in this 
day and age. Back in Indiana, $17 million is a lot of money. It should 
be everywhere. Of these employees, 350 of the jobs were IRS customer 
service representatives and 204 were IRS agents. The American public 
deserves out of our Agencies, I think, service better than that.
  We can debate how much money the IRS needs to do its job, but we need 
commonsense policies like this to where we are not trying to restrict 
what already, to many, would seem unusual--that when you are on the 
dime, when you are being paid by the Federal Government, you maybe 
shouldn't be able to do union activities at the same time. Anyway, a 
lot of things don't make sense here. This will immediately add value to 
the American taxpayer.
  The IRS is warning Americans to prepare for delays and long hold 
times when filing their taxes this year. I would say that most folks 
would say that you need improvement.

[[Page S479]]

  Here are a couple of other particulars: They received more than 100 
million calls but only answer 1 out of 4. Calls averaged 18 minutes of 
hold time. In my own business, if you add 18 minutes of hold time, you 
just gave the order to one of your four or five competitors. None of us 
likes that.
  Face-to-face assistance declined from 4.4 million in fiscal 2016 to 
only 1 million in 2020. The IRS is now telling us to buckle up for 
service even to get worse.
  Let's use some common sense. Before you raise prices in a business or 
you ask your customers to even be more forbearing when you are 
delivering bad service, your competitors would take you out. Here, in 
the Federal Government, you don't have that kind of inherent 
competition, and, sadly, the public--American taxpayers--have to put up 
with it. And when your default position is always to spend more money, 
I know the American public is interested in something better than this. 
Sadly, for whatever we do that is above and beyond the ordinary, we 
were borrowing 23 cents of every dollar we spend here. Now it is up 
closer to 30 cents, and it is in the context that we are $30 trillion 
in debt to boot.
  This is something, what I am proposing here, since it doesn't 
eliminate your ability to do it, let's just take it out of the tax 
season.
  Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous 
consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further 
consideration of S. 2132, and that the Senate proceed to its immediate 
consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third 
time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made 
and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I 
certainly agree with the proposition that was advanced by my colleague 
to improve service at the Internal Revenue Service. The fact, however, 
is the effect of this proposal is to demean IRS workers and distract 
from the real challenges facing the IRS. And the real challenge can be 
embodied by the fact that, for years and years, my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle have been squeezing and downsizing critical 
enforcement services at the IRS to the point where the wealthy cheats 
basically can get a free ride. They can get a free ride.
  About the other day, in the context of talking about tax cheats and 
wealthy partnerships that aren't getting audited, I said the chance 
that they are going to be subject to real enforcement, when they are a 
wealthy tax cheat, is about the same likelihood of being hit by a 
meteor, and it is because of these policies that have been downsizing 
resources at the IRS to deal with these wealthy tax cheats for years.
  Now, Commissioner Rettig, who is a Trump appointee--an appointee of 
former President Trump--recently said there are fewer auditors to deal 
with these wealthy tax cheats today than at any point since World War 
II.
  So they have got that challenge, and then they have an enormous IT 
challenge because the IRS, by their admission, is still using some 
systems that are practically dated back to the Dark Ages.
  According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, during the last fiscal 
year, the IRS received a record 282 million customer service phone 
calls and, with limited staff, was only able to answer 11 percent of 
them. Commissioner Rettig told the Finance Committee, in a remarkable 
statement, that it was his opinion that the amount of taxes that go 
unpaid each year could now be as high as a trillion dollars.
  To just wrap up, I want to describe how this all is connected. My 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle have repeatedly attacked the 
IRS. They cut, they squeeze, and they have constantly reduced the IRS 
budget. Wealthy tax cheats are out basically celebrating the decline of 
real tax enforcement. Law-abiding Americans--the vast majority of 
Americans--are, of course, frustrated by the declining customer 
service.

  So then we have our colleagues on the other side of the aisle attack 
the IRS, and the cycle just repeats: more cuts, less enforcement 
targeted to wealthy tax cheats, and, unfortunately, inadequate customer 
service. That has been the pattern now for decades.
  In my view, this is a gift to tax cheats and an annual headache for 
just about everyone else.
  There is no question the pandemic--and this has been true for every 
aspect of government--has brought new challenges, just like it has for 
every business, every school, every government agency around the 
country. And, in my view, instead of misplacing what the target really 
ought to be, which is inadequate resources so we can't go after the 
wealthy tax cheats, somehow we are hearing that it is the workers, 
these union members, who are at fault. That is not my take.
  For the reasons I have outlined, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  Mr. BRAUN. Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. BRAUN. Briefly, respecting what the Senator says about wealthy 
tax cheats, I agree with him 100 percent. Everybody should pay their 
fair share. But I guarantee you, there wasn't one wealthy tax cheat 
that was on hold for 18 minutes. They are not calling in. They hired a 
lawyer or somebody to do it.
  This is impacting Americans, mom-and-pop business owners, folks who 
just need to talk to someone. It is not a wealthy tax cheat who would 
have made 1 of 100 million calls. They don't do that. There is another 
way to go after that.
  All I am saying is, during the busiest time of the year, let's take 
the resources that we have got, whether they need to be enhanced or 
not, and let's let them focus on the job of answering the phone and not 
making a small taxpayer suffer. They are the ones wrestling with the 
IRS by numbers, not wealthy tax cheats.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.