Paul Coverdell: “first, let me thank all the Senators who have played a significant role in this legislation that we are about to vote…”

“first, let me thank all the Senators who have played a significant role in this legislation that we are about to vote on, certainly Senators Glenn of Ohio and Roth of Delaware and others, who have committed themselves to ending the practice on the part of the IRS of snooping through the personal tax files of American citizens. Recently, the GAO issued its report on IRS system security, on April 8, which was initiated at the request of Senator Glenn. The General Accounting Office concluded that the IRS has failed to effectively deal with file snooping. It says: Further, although the IRS has taken some action to detect browsing-- That word means looking at the personal tax files of American taxpayers. it is still not effectively addressing this area of continuing concern because (1) it does not know the full extent of browsing and (2) it is consistently addressing cases of browsing. The GAO found that the IRS still does not know the full extent of file snooping, it says: Because the IRS does not monitor the activities of all employees authorized to access taxpayer data . . ., IRS has no assurance that employees are not--[snooping, they use the word browsing] taxpayer data, and no analytical basis on which to estimate the extent of the browsing problem or any damage being done. The Internal Revenue Service stated a zero tolerance policy, with regard to file snooping.…”