Dianne Feinstein: “I have a very hard time accepting that this is just an inadvertent staff submission, and I wanted to say why. Because…”

“I have a very hard time accepting that this is just an inadvertent staff submission, and I wanted to say why. Because this section 222, if you read it in its entirety, is really an egregious abuse of power. If you go down to line 17, it says: ``allow agents.'' We are not talking-- this is not even staff. This is anyone the chairman of the Appropriations Committee would designate, in written form, would have ``access [to all] Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information'' such as legal information, cases brought. I cannot believe that some staffer, for some technical reason, wanted to insert this in the bill. I think this is an egregious overreach of power. I think we ought to do the right thing by it, and the right thing, for me, is to vote down this bill, call the House back, have them reconference the bill, and do it the right way. I do not think this language should be active for 1 minute, let alone 1 day. It is just a terrible, egregious abuse of power.”