Kenny Hulshof: “Yes, the tax limitation amendment did not pass, but yes, we did pass overwhelmingly the sense of Congress to provide tax…”

“Yes, the tax limitation amendment did not pass, but yes, we did pass overwhelmingly the sense of Congress to provide tax relief. In addition, we passed today the Taxpayer Browsing Protection Act, which I think is certainly necessary in light of the conversations we have had about this investment in the computer technology and equipment for the Internal Revenue Service. We did pass today by a two-thirds majority vote a measure that would protect the individual taxpayers, that would make it a crime in the Internal Revenue Code for an IRS agent or employee to inspect tax return information without authorization. In addition, this bill mandates that employees that are convicted of browsing or, as some have said, snooping or intruding upon our confidential information that those employees be dismissed from office or discharged from employment. The reason that we had this discussion last week, the General Accounting Office gave us information that over 1,500 cases of unauthorized inspections of taxpayer records occurred between 1994 and 1995.”