Connie Mack: “first I commend Finance Committee Chairman Roth, and my Finance Committee colleagues Senator Kerrey of Nebraska and…”

“first I commend Finance Committee Chairman Roth, and my Finance Committee colleagues Senator Kerrey of Nebraska and Senator Grassley, for their invaluable contributions to this important step in cleaning up the IRS. The IRS reform bill that we are about to pass would never have seen the light of day were it not for the efforts of the IRS restructuring commission and the determined leadership of Chairman Roth, who presided over the first meaningful IRS oversight hearings that this body has had in decades. The IRS reform bill is a landmark achievement, a shot across the bow to the IRS letting them know that "business as usual" will no longer be tolerated. But this bill--although it contains the largest assortment of taxpayer rights ever enacted into law, and reforms the IRS with such important innovations as the new Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration--is only the first step in a continuing process to curb the abuses of the IRS. More important than the new taxpayer rights, more important than the procedural and structural reforms, is the process that we used to fashion this bill. Simply stated, the oversight power of the Congress is the single most powerful tool that we have to root out the abuses and injustices that have become ingrained in the corrupted culture of the IRS.”