Paul Coverdell: “today I rise to offer legislation that will end one of the most pernicious offenses forced upon honest taxpayers. I am…”

“today I rise to offer legislation that will end one of the most pernicious offenses forced upon honest taxpayers. I am talking about file snooping. Others may call it browsing or scanning. Whatever the name, it is just plain wrong, and it ought to be stopped. That is why today I am introducing the Taxpayer Privacy Protection Act. Too often, the Internal Revenue Service acts as a bully, enforcing the Tax Code through fear and intimidation. Even worse, legal loopholes have allowed certain IRS employees to violate the privacy of innocent citizens without punishment. Some of the most troubling abuses committed by employees of the IRS against innocent Americans include the practices of file snooping. Recently in the Wall Street Journal, we learned of the case of Mr. Richard W. Czubinski of Boston, MA. He is a member of the Ku Klux Klan who used his IRS job to search the tax returns of political opponents and people he suspected of being Government informers. He was prosecuted and convicted by a jury, but his conviction was overturned in the Federal Court of Appeals. In making its decision, the appellate panel found Mr. Czubinski's browsing to be reprehensible, but also found no crime had been committed because prosecutors could not prove he had used the information or disclosed it.”