Rudy Yakym: “I thank the gentleman from Missouri and the chairman for his time as well as his leadership on this bill. I rise in…”

“I thank the gentleman from Missouri and the chairman for his time as well as his leadership on this bill. I rise in strong support of the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, which will increase penalties for the unauthorized disclosure of personal information. Americans want certain things kept private. For example, the secret ballot protects the sanctity of the voting booth. HIPAA keeps medical history between you and your doctor. Section 6103 is supposed to safeguard the sensitive information of our tax returns. Beginning in 2017, an IRS contractor illegally downloaded tax returns for thousands of Americans and began sharing them with reporters. When the investigators caught on, he tried to destroy the evidence of his crime. Yet the Biden-Harris administration let off the perpetrator of this egregious breach of trust with only a single count of unauthorized disclosure. We cannot let partisan actors with delusions of white knighthood think they can get away with sacrificing institutional trust in furtherance of their personal political vendettas. I thank Chairman Smith for keeping the spotlight on this case, and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.”