[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 146 (Monday, September 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4529-S4530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Internal Revenue Service

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, more than a year ago, a news website 
by the name of ProPublica published stories that it claims are based on 
``a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of 
thousands of the nation's wealthiest people, covering more than 15 
years.'' Since then, ProPublica has continued to publish articles that 
appear to use data leaked or hacked from the IRS.
  Despite questions from Congress and immediate expressions of concern 
from the Treasury Department, as well as the IRS, we don't know any 
more today than we did a year ago. Even though these apparent leaks of 
confidential taxpayer information appear to target the wealthy, not 
just the wealthy but all taxpayers and anyone who cares about effective 
tax administration should be very concerned. The fact is, until we get 
answers, we don't know if anyone's tax return or other information 
submitted to the IRS is actually secure.
  At the end of the 2022 filing system, more than 145 million 
individual income tax returns had been filed with the IRS. Right now, 
we don't know if there is a current vulnerability to the IRS's systems 
that makes this personal information accessible within the IRS or to 
bad actors outside of the IRS. We do not know if a foreign nation with 
hostile intentions is responsible for a leak or a hack of taxpayer 
information or the full scope of the IRS's information that may be 
involved. Just because ProPublica hasn't found it politically useful to 
publicly disclose your private taxpayer information doesn't mean that 
your tax information hasn't been compromised.
  As I said earlier, in June of 2021, concern was immediately expressed 
in the Congress and at the Treasury Department. Almost on that very 
day, Commissioner Rettig appeared before the Finance Committee. In 
fact, it was on that very day that the first story was published.
  Commissioner Rettig said:

       I think that trust and confidence in the Internal Revenue 
     Service is sort of the bedrock of asking people and requiring 
     people to provide financial information, and we have, as I 
     said, turned it over to the appropriate investigators, 
     external and internal.

  Attorney General Garland was quoted as saying:

       This is an extremely serious matter. People are entitled, 
     obviously, to great privacy with respect to their tax 
     returns.

  With this level of concern expressed so quickly, now a year ago, you 
would expect action to have been taken quickly. If you expected that, 
you would be wrong. Despite several letters sent by this Senator and 
other Members of Congress, we don't know any more today about what 
happened than we did last year on June 8, when this situation began.
  When testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Secretary 
Yellen said:

       I am as anxious as you are to find out what happened.

  As a strong proponent of congressional oversight--as I am--of the 
executive branch, I have always been frustrated when the executive 
refuses to share relevant information that we need in Congress and are 
entitled under the Constitution to have. Secretary Yellen's statement 
suggests a more disturbing possibility where the executive branch 
completely lacks the sought-after information. Now, consider how 
shocking it is if the Secretary of the Treasury actually has no insight 
or any knowledge into a possible massive leak or hack of taxpayer 
information that occurred under her watch.
  In order to determine if any action had been taken, I, along with 
other Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, wrote to Attorney 
General Garland and FBI Director Wray on June 24 of this year to ask 
what the status was of any investigation. This was the second time we 
tried to get this information.
  I know the Department of Justice is capable of taking action quickly 
when the Department of Justice wants to. I have written to the Attorney 
General several times about the memo that he issued in response to a 
letter from the National School Boards Association. That school board 
letter compared parents to domestic terrorists. It took the Department 
of Justice only 5 days,

[[Page S4530]]

which included a weekend, to inject Federal law enforcement into local 
debates with concerned parents.

  Clearly, the Attorney General is capable of taking action very 
quickly, but that seems to only be when an administrative priority is 
of concern. I hope the Biden administration and the Garland Department 
of Justice would be as concerned about the protection of confidential 
taxpayer information as they are about monitoring concerned parents who 
testify before a school board.
  If the Department of Justice and the FBI want to show that they take 
the confidentiality of taxpayer information seriously, they can start 
by fully and completely responding to my letter of June 24, which 
hasn't yet been responded to. More than a full year, with a complete 
filing season, is too much time to have gone by without having any 
information on this leaking of taxpayer information being provided to 
any extent.
  Democrats constantly spoke of the need for fairness in the tax system 
as they pushed through partisan tax-and-spending bills. Yet we have 
heard barely a peep out of our Democratic colleagues on what may be the 
largest unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information in history.
  While we continue to wait for answers, we have learned of another 
massive breach of taxpayer information.
  On the first Friday of September, we learned the IRS mistakenly 
published on its website private information from about 120,000 
taxpayers. According to Politico, the disclosure consisted of ``details 
from business tax returns filed by tax-exempt organizations and 
retirement accounts, included people's names, business contact 
information and income produced by certain investments.''
  Clearly, the ability of the IRS to safeguard taxpayer information is 
still an ongoing issue.
  This new revelation should light a very big fire underneath the FBI 
to get at the bottom of the ProPublica leak or hack. Attorney General 
Garland and FBI Director Wray must fully respond to my letter and help 
all of us really understand if our tax system is safe and secure.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Duckworth). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.