House passes bills targeting IRS

The House late Tuesday passed legislation to highlight congressional committees’ investigations of the Internal Revenue Service for its alleged targeting of conservative nonprofits applying for tax-exempt status.

All of the measures were passed by voice vote.

{mosads}One bill, H.R. 5418, would prohibit IRS employees from using personal email accounts for official business. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) said it would prevent sensitive taxpayer information from being compromised if IRS employees use non-secured email accounts.

“There’s no reason for an IRS employee to have confidential taxpayer information on his or her home computer without the necessary safeguards against disclosure,” Boustany said.

Another measure, H.R. 5170, would establish a process for firing federal employees who falsify or destroy records. The IRS has been under fire since it informed Congress that nearly two years’ worth of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails were lost in a computer crash. Lerner was held in contempt of Congress in a largely party-line vote in the House earlier this year.

“Unfortunately, too frequently of late, Congress has heard examples of agencies and individuals failing to comply with the basic provisions of the federal recordkeeping law. The most recent illustration is the IRS. They failed to follow the law by not disclosing the potential loss of federal records relating to Ms. Lerner,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, agreed it would help ensure that government records remain accessible.

“This bill would  make the federal government’s records more transparent,” Cummings said.

Additionally, the House gave voice vote approval to a bill, H.R. 5419, to affirm the right for taxpayers to appeal an IRS determination regarding tax-exempt status for an organization.