there are several amendments pending to the EDA bill on the floor. Senators will be notified when votes are scheduled. ____________________

I am grateful that both Federal individual and public assistance will be made available there.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my views on this program with the Committee.

The program should be reworked to be more actuarially and fiscally sound.

I believe freezing or restricting IRS funding--either for taxpayer service activities or for enforcement activities--would be a mistake and would undermine the goal of closing the tax gap and reducing the deficit.

I am pleased to convene this hearing to consider the fiscal year 2012 funding request of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

I'm pleased to convene this hearing to consider the fiscal year 2012 funding request for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

I welcome the opportunity today to conduct critical oversight of the IRS and its programs.

It's estimated that $345 billion of Federal taxes go uncollected each year--a noncompliance rate of 16.3 percent.

Most of the tax gap--$285 billion out of $345 billion, or 82 percent--is attributable to under-reporting tax liability.

I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment is as follows: (Purpose: To address the time period for consideration of the small issuer…

It has been my honor to work with Director Mueller for the last 10 years. You are an honest, honorable man and you've dramatically transformed our Nation's premier law enforcement agency.

I rise today in honor of National Hunger Awareness Day. On this day, we focus on the more than 50 million people in the United States without enough to eat and reassert our commitment to assist those in need. Millions of families live each…

may I ask the Senator from Tennessee if he would mind yielding and indicate how long he might be speaking?

the Senator from Rhode Island spoke about the 10th anniversary of the George W. Bush tax cuts. These were tax cuts that primarily benefitted the wealthiest people in America, and we recently renewed them. There was a decision made that to…

there is a prohibition in the U.S. Constitution from cruel and unusual punishment, and the fact that you will be presiding in the chair when I am going to be speaking on an amendment which you are offering is truly cruel and unusual, but I…

I have an amendment at the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Illinois [Mr. Durbin] proposes an amendment numbered 393 to amendment No. 392.

My last question is, do you have the information technology capability and the staff capability to develop what we've just discussed--a new generation of thinking about collecting and processing information that doesn't rely on the…

Thank you, Senator Moran, for your patience.

The Congress exercises its most-effective oversight of agencies and programs through the appropriations process.

So, I think you answered--I was going to ask a question, if other countries do it more effectively than we do, and I think what you said, we're in the top five in terms of compliance.

Well, naturally, there was huge push-back from the business community saying, 'More paperwork? Thank you, Washington. That is just what we need.'

In the most egregious cases, when someone is claiming they're a homeowner and entitled to these credits and, in fact, they're not.

Are we prosecuting those who file false returns?

The IRS deals with a huge volume, processing more than 230 million tax returns and issuing more than 109 million refunds.