[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 1, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Internal Revenue Service

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, last year, Senate Democrats used the 
budget reconciliation process to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. They 
did this without a single Republican vote. Included in that monstrosity 
was an $80 billion payday for the Internal Revenue Service--more than 
6.5 times the amount of funding the IRS would normally receive in any 
given year.
  After this happened, I had a lot of Tennesseans ask me: Why does the 
IRS need that much money? Many of them are really fearful that the IRS 
is going to come after them and their small businesses. And you know 
what. They are probably right.
  The Biden administration insists they are going to use this $80 
billion to help the IRS answer the telephones because they are only 
answered about 20 percent of the time, but we know that it means more 
audits for small businesses, small business manufacturers, and Main 
Street merchants. This administration has never once passed up an 
opportunity to expand government power, and they aren't about to stop 
now. We know this expansion will lead to needless harassment. That is 
the nature of Big Government.
  But I am equally concerned about the sheer amount of data the IRS has 
scraped up during investigations. The IRS already collects far more 
data than they need. In 2022, they hired a contractor to block 
taxpayers from accessing government services unless they handed over 
sensitive biometric data. They already have your name, address, and 
Social Security number, but now they want to collect a picture of your 
government ID, your fingerprints, and a selfie photo. Why in the world 
would we allow the IRS to collect this data? The answer, of course, is 
that most people wouldn't let them have it if they had a choice. But 
the IRS wants to force this on the American people.
  To make matters worse, we know that they are completely incapable of 
protecting the data they have access to. Let's just take a moment and 
look at some of the instances where the IRS has shown their disregard 
for your data security.
  In 2015, hackers exposed more than 700,000 taxpayers' Social Security 
numbers. In 2017, the IRS notified Congress that hackers had accessed 
more than 100,000 Federal student aid accounts. In 2021, the infamous 
ProPublica leak unlawfully exposed financial information on many 
prominent Americans. In 2022, the 990-T leak exposed the sensitive info 
of more than 100,000 taxpayers not once but twice.
  But even on a good day, the top men at the IRS have refused to 
prioritize data security.
  They still haven't responded to inquiries I made about what security 
protocols they implemented as part of their ``work from home'' policy.
  The IRS should be collecting the minimum amount of information 
required to do their job, and they should be doing all they can to 
protect your information. Instead, this Agency has a giant flashing 
sign out front inviting hackers to browse their files. These bad actors 
already know the IRS is vulnerable, and we will not be able to control 
that threat until the IRS abandons its latest power grab and 
prioritizes data security.
  This is what the Biden administration needs to focus on before it 
spends 80 billion taxpayer dollars harassing the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.