Byron Dorgan: “let me go to a couple of other issues. About the Internal Revenue Service hearings that are being held in the Senate…”

“let me go to a couple of other issues. About the Internal Revenue Service hearings that are being held in the Senate Finance Committee this week, let me say first that I think those hearings are appropriate. I think anywhere you find abuses of a taxing agency, they are repulsive and disgusting. Those who commit those abuses ought to be summarily fired and penalized in any other way the agency can do so. It is clear to me from the hearings that have been held that there has been mismanagement at the Internal Revenue Service and that some of the circumstances of abuses they should have known about, they didn't. On some of misconduct that they did know about, they didn't take appropriate action. And if these hearings accomplish anything, I hope it is that this agency simply cannot ever treat lightly the abuse of the American taxpayer. It is ugly and disgusting and must never happen. All tax agencies have a special responsibility to make sure it doesn't happen. I ran a State tax agency for some long while in a State capital, and I understand about it. We were the repository of hundreds of thousands of income tax returns having sensitive financial information of all the folks of our State. I understand the responsibility of taxing authorities to make certain that the agency behaves appropriately with taxpayers. And I am appalled by some of the stories that have come from these hearings.”