This week, Rep. LaHood voted for common sense legislation that the House passed to bring needed reforms to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“The IRS is failing at doing its job. While 84% of Americans who need tax assistance can’t get their phone calls answered, the IRS is awarding bonuses and hiring employees who themselves are delinquent on their taxes. The IRS even sent out $46 million in potentially fraudulent tax refunds due to a computer program error,” stated Rep. LaHood. “Today I voted for measures requiring the IRS to fix these problems. Those who collect others taxes should be required to pay their own. Those who manage our nation’s tax revenue should spend those taxpayer dollars wisely. Those who work for the government are not above the law, or the Constitution.”
According to testimony from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the IRS answered only 15.6 percent of customer service calls during the 2016 tax-filing season. U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rebuked the IRS for political targeting. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS erroneously released over $46 million in tax refunds in 2013 that were flagged as potentially fraudulent. Despite these lamentable actions, information received under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the IRS gave nearly $6 million in bonuses to employees over the past five years.
Summaries of the five bills passed out of the House are as follows:
- H.R. 3724, the Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act, prohibits IRS employees who were fired for misconduct from being rehired by the IRS. This measure passed on a 345-78 vote.
- H.R. 4890, the IRS Bonuses Tied to Measurable Metrics Act, ends bonuses to IRS employees until the agency starts to fix its terrible customer service record. This measure passed on a 260 - 158 vote.
- H.R. 4885, the IRS Oversight While Eliminating Spending Act of 2016, would get rid of the unaccountable IRS slush fund and reassert Congressional Article I powers over the fees the IRS collects. This measure passed on a 245-170 vote.
- H.R. 1206, the No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act, would stop the IRS from hiring any new employees until it can certify that no employees are delinquent on their own taxes. This measure passed on a 254-170 vote.
- H.R. 4903 would prohibit the use of funds by the Internal Revenue Service to target citizens of the United States for exercising any right guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This measure passed out of the House with unanimous support.
