Amy Klobuchar: “the bill I put out on the floor is a bipartisan bill. It is a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee…”

“the bill I put out on the floor is a bipartisan bill. It is a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 18 to 0. It is a bill that last Congress passed under suspension in the House with the support of Republican Representative Lamar Smith and got through the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives, which tends to sometimes be a rather partisan place, was able to pass that bill. We cannot let this bill, when we are bleeding $3.6 billion in fraudulent tax return payments, die on the floor because my friend from Texas is trying again to put on these amendments. I have no problem in having this amendment come up through the Finance Committee. By the way, Senator Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, said on the record during the Judiciary Committee hearing that S. 2067 should be considered first by the Finance Committee; that it was in the Finance Committee's jurisdiction. Yes, he voted for it in the end, but that is what he said. That is why this was problematic, and that amendment failed. We had a full discussion about this amendment. In addition, there is a rulemaking on this issue, with 76,000 comments before the IRS. That is the issue. As for the other amendment that my friend from Texas has put out there as 2066, also considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee, also debated in the Judiciary Committee--we didn't close off the amendment.…”