Paul Coverdell: “the hearings that the Senate Finance Committee has been conducting on the Internal Revenue Service--the adjectives that…”

“the hearings that the Senate Finance Committee has been conducting on the Internal Revenue Service--the adjectives that have been used to describe it are ``startling,'' ``stunning,'' ``unbelievable.'' I do believe most of the American public who have seen this unfold before their eyes are aghast at some of the assertions and allegations that have been made. Recently, I became very concerned that the IRS was still conducting random audits. They indicated to me that they were not. So I asked the General Accounting Office to verify to me that random audits were not a tool of the Internal Revenue Service. A report was issued dated February 1998: ``Report to the Honorable Paul Coverdell, U.S. Senate, Tax Administration, IRS Use of Random Selection in Choosing Tax Returns for Audits.'' On page 2, at the very top, it says, ``IRS officials did identify 6 projects involving subpopulations of taxpayers with indications of noncompliance from which taxpayers were randomly selected for audit.'' Let me repeat that--``from which taxpayers were randomly selected for audit.'' I made a public statement of deep concern about the fact I had been advised they were not and the General Accounting Office said they were.”