[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14832-14833]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               USE OF PERSONAL EMAIL ACCOUNTS PROHIBITION

  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 5418) to prohibit officers and employees of the Internal 
Revenue Service from using personal email accounts to conduct official 
business.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

[[Page 14833]]



                               H.R. 5418

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. IRS EMPLOYEES PROHIBITED FROM USING PERSONAL EMAIL 
                   ACCOUNTS FOR OFFICIAL BUSINESS.

       No officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service may 
     use a personal email account to conduct any official business 
     of the Government.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Boustany) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Louisiana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Tonight I rise in strong support of H.R. 5418. This bill which I 
introduced is a response to the Ways and Means Committee's year-and-a-
half-long investigation of the IRS' targeting of taxpayers based on 
their political beliefs.
  In its exhaustive ongoing investigation, the committee found that 
some IRS employees risk that confidential information by circumventing 
official email and using their personal, nonsecure email for official 
business. H.R. 5418 fixes this problem by prohibiting employees of the 
IRS from using a personal email account to conduct any official 
business, ensuring there is a full record of IRS activity and that 
taxpayer information is secure.
  There is no reason for an IRS employee to have confidential taxpayer 
information on his or her home computer without the necessary 
safeguards against disclosure. This behavior must be stopped, and I 
urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I shall consume.
  This is the first of three straightforward bills concerning the IRS. 
It is my hope the Republicans will focus the debate in the 
straightforward manner that is warranted, and that is what is happening 
on this bill.
  Currently, the IRS restricts its employees from sending emails that 
contain sensitive but unclassified data outside the IRS network unless 
approved by senior agency management, but the manual does not 
specifically reference the use of personal email accounts. This 
legislation would specifically prohibit the use of personal email 
accounts to conduct official agency business. I support this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I welcome the introduction of this bill and I support 
it, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I think it is a good bill. It is a 
commonsense bill. It has broad support. I urge its support, and I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5418.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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