[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5050-5052]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              TAXPAYER KNOWLEDGE OF IRS INVESTIGATIONS ACT

  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 1026) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
permit the release of information regarding the status of certain 
investigations, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1026

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

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Taxpayer Knowledge of IRS 
     Investigations Act''.

     SEC. 2. RELEASE OF INFORMATION REGARDING THE STATUS OF 
                   CERTAIN INVESTIGATIONS.

       (a) In General.--Section 6103(e) of the Internal Revenue 
     Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following 
     new paragraph:
       ``(11) Disclosure of information regarding status of 
     investigation of violation of this section.--In the case of a 
     person who provides to the Secretary information indicating a 
     violation of section 7213, 7213A, or 7214 with respect to any 
     return or return information of such person, the Secretary 
     may disclose to such person (or such person's designee)--
       ``(A) whether an investigation based on the person's 
     provision of such information has been initiated and whether 
     it is open or closed,
       ``(B) whether any such investigation substantiated such a 
     violation by any individual, and
       ``(C) whether any action has been taken with respect to 
     such individual (including whether a referral has been made 
     for prosecution of such individual).''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section 
     shall apply to disclosures made on or after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin.


                             General Leave

  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1026, currently 
under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Wisconsin?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. At this time, I would like to thank Mr. Kelly,

[[Page 5051]]

a member of the Ways and Means Committee, along with the minority 
ranking member for their diligence in uncovering this problem also. You 
are seeing a theme here, Mr. Speaker, which is both the Republican and 
Democratic side of the Ways and Means Committee in conducting oversight 
saw abuses that needed to be fixed. We are fixing these abuses so that 
they can't happen again, in this statute.
  For the purpose of describing this particular legislation, I would 
like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), the author of the bill.
  Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the chairman for yielding me this 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1026, as has been described, this actually had come 
before Congress before. Dr. Boustany and Mr. Roskam have presented 
this. This is about taxpayer knowledge of IRS investigations.
  Now, this would make sense to almost everybody to understand what 
exactly has been going on. Under section 6103 in the Tax Code, it is a 
felony to disclose or to compromise people's tax information and give 
it to other groups to work with. We shouldn't have to pass laws like 
this; but unfortunately, laws are not made and governments are not run 
by angels but they are run by men, so we have to have oversight over 
what has happened.
  This piece of legislation gives the same rights to those people whose 
information has been violated, whose information has been compromised, 
as is given to IRS personnel. We found out 2 years ago, and Dr. John 
Eastman really made the point of it for the National Organization for 
Marriage, their tax information on their people, their members, was 
given out, and it went to Human Rights Campaign. Now, you would think 
by the name of that that it makes sense, Human Rights Campaign, those 
are probably good people, but you cannot divulge private tax 
information to anybody else. It is a felony to do that. But section 
6103 also prevented those whose tax information was divulged, they 
couldn't get information on it. They weren't allowed to even inquire 
and were not allowed to be informed of what was taking place. Did it in 
fact take place? Well, we knew it took place because it was out in the 
public.
  Secondly, who was it who divulged it? We don't know. We can't talk to 
you about that because that is protected under the Tax Code.
  Well, is there an investigation? We can't tell you that either, 
because that is protected. We can't tell you who it was who divulged 
it, who they divulged it to, is there an investigation or is there not 
an investigation. And at the end of it, was there proof found that this 
was actually done? If so, what is the penalty for it? Those are basic 
tenets of what we are as Americans.
  So I submit to people, this is not a Republican or Democrat issue, as 
we know it--Mr. Lewis is a good friend of mine--it is American tenets. 
It is what we firmly believe as Americans. Nobody should be able to do 
that to us; and if they do that to us, we should be able to inquire 
about the status of that. This piece of legislation gives every single 
taxpayer the same rights as those doing the investigation, those doing 
the leaks and the findings.
  Now, if we are to restore the American people's confidence in our 
form of government, this is essential. We can't allow these things to 
happen and then say, well, we could have helped you except for one 
thing in the Tax Code, section 6103(e). What is going to happen, those 
people are going to look at us and say: I have absolutely no idea what 
you are talking about. We say: Well, we can't really let you know what 
happened.
  So if it really is an American principle and if we really do need to 
have faith and trust and feel that we are all being treated the same 
way and in an honest way, and if that is the only way to restore the 
confidence that the people need to have and the trust they have in our 
form of government and those of us who they have sent to represent 
them, then this type of legislation has to take place.
  I am so proud of what our Committee on Ways and Means is doing today 
under Chairman Ryan and under Mr. Roskam. What are we doing? We are 
protecting taxpayers and taxpayers' rights. This is so fundamentally 
American. This shouldn't be anything you even have to stop and think 
about.
  So what we are proposing today under H.R. 1026 is that the taxpayers 
have the same information and the same knowledge of what is going on 
with their accounts, what has been divulged, who divulged it, is there 
an ongoing investigation, what were the findings of that investigation 
and who is being held responsible, and more important than that, who is 
being held accountable? These are felonies. Until we get to the point 
where the American people have faith and trust in us again and restore 
their confidence, we have nothing.
  In America's House, we as Members have got to make sure that every 
single day we safeguard the rights of every single American. 
Unfortunately, this has not taken place in the past, and we have to 
move forward with it.
  I do know that today being April 15 is a day that most people dread. 
Listen, tax revenues are necessary. We need to have an agency to 
collect them. But by the same token, when it turns out that those 
people in that agency--and not all of them, but we have some people in 
there that are violating individuals' rights, then we have to come 
forward and we have to champion legislation that protects the same 
people who voted us into office and sent us to defend them.
  Mr. LEWIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1026, the Taxpayer Knowledge 
of IRS Investigations Act.
  Earlier this afternoon, the House passed H.R. 1058, the Taxpayer Bill 
of Rights Act. Two of the rights included in that bill were the right 
to confidentiality, the right to be informed. This bill complements 
that legislation.
  Generally, tax returns are confidential and may not be disclosed 
unless authorized by the Internal Revenue Code. Section 6103 of the 
Code provides certain exceptions. These do not include telling a 
taxpayer if there has been an unauthorized disclosure of his or her tax 
return information. Fines, criminal penalties, or both apply to the 
unauthorized inspection or disclosure of tax return information.
  H.R. 1026 would allow the Internal Revenue Service to update a 
taxpayer on the status of investigations of unauthorized disclosure of 
his or her tax return. They would be allowed to know whether the 
investigation started, is open, or is closed.
  This is a simple, commonsense bill. Taxpayers have a right to know if 
their tax return information has been compromised.

                              {time}  1415

  I want to thank my friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, my 
Republican colleague; the ranking member of the subcommittee; and the 
chairman for bringing this bill to the floor today.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time 
is remaining on each side, please?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) has 
17\1/2\ minutes remaining, and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) 
has 18 minutes remaining.
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.
  This one, this case, really boils my blood. Let me just try and 
describe in a simple way what Mr. Kelly is fixing here and what 
happened to honest, hard-working taxpayers in America in this case.
  There is an organization that is a nonprofit organization advocating 
freely in our free speech society for their view on a cause--I won't 
even say what cause it is--advocating for their view, a charitable 
nonprofit.
  The Internal Revenue Service took their confidential filing and list 
of their donors to their cause, and the Internal Revenue Service broke 
the law and leaked it to an outside individual not with the Internal 
Revenue Service. This list of donors to this cause went out on the 
Internet. It was released to the public by the opponents of this cause.

[[Page 5052]]

  Guess what happened. The people who confidentially, privately 
donated--exercising their free speech rights to advocate for a cause--
found themselves intimidated, found themselves harassed because their 
personal, private information had been released by the IRS to the 
public.
  This organization asked the Internal Revenue Service: What just 
happened? How did this private document with the private information of 
our donors to our cause get out there on the Internet and hosted on the 
page by our opponents of our cause?
  The Internal Revenue Service in turn said: We can't answer your 
question.
  The advocates of the cause, trying to defend the privacy of their 
donors--a free speech right--said: Well, are you investigating this? 
Are you looking into this? Are you holding somebody responsible? Is 
there an investigation into how this private information got out on the 
Internet?
  They said: We can't answer that question.
  Unbelievable--that is not freedom; that is not liberty. That is not 
how this IRS will ever act again if we have any say-so over this.
  That is why Mr. Kelly is writing this bill, to make sure that 
people's privacy is protected and that it is not leaked to the public 
or to the opponents of a cause that they care about.
  I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam), the 
chairman of the subcommittee.
  Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, you are noticing a theme here, and that is 
intimidation and impunity. That is a bad combination when a culture of 
impunity develops and an agency says: We can do what we want, when we 
want, and how we want to; and we can intimidate who we want, how we 
want, and when we want to.
  Said another way, here is what the IRS did: the IRS broke the law, 
and then they used the law to conceal it. They broke the law, and they 
used the law. That is a manipulation. That is a manipulation that no 
side of this Congress is going to stand for.
  That is a manipulation that has to be answered. That is a 
manipulation that has to be put down, that we cannot be complicit with. 
You cannot break the law and then use the law to conceal it. That is 
exactly what happened in this case.
  In other words, the IRS releases this information in violation of the 
law; and then, when they are asked about it, they say: Well, we would 
just love to tell you about it, but it is against the law for us to 
tell you about it.
  That is ridiculous. That is so jarring that now we have had a 
situation and we have had a culture that has developed over a period of 
time at the Internal Revenue Service where breaking the law and using 
the law to conceal it is considered what? It is considered normal.
  I am proud of the House today because the sensibilities of the House 
of Representatives is to say that is not normal, that is not 
acceptable, that is not right, and that will not be tolerated.
  Mr. LEWIS. Mr. Speaker, I support the piece of legislation.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly) for the purpose of closing.
  Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I agree with everything my 
colleagues have said. I think Americans need to look at what is going 
on in their House--America's House--today and to understand that we do 
understand the difference between right and wrong. We also understand 
that sometimes absolute power corrupts absolutely.
  We started years ago looking into this. We still don't have all the 
answers. I would just tell some of our fellow citizens that we are not 
done yet because we knew those things have happened.
  I think what the chairman has expressed and Mr. Roskam has expressed 
is the outrage we feel because it is not only our responsibility, it is 
our duty to protect every single one of America's citizens. To divulge 
the information that was divulged and to do it in such a way to use the 
law to break the law makes absolutely no sense to any of us.
  This isn't really about either side of the aisle. This is about all 
of us, together, doing what is right for the American people. This 
should reconfirm to the American people that we are here acting in 
their best interest and defending them every single day that we sit in 
session and that we sit in office.
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1026, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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