Bob Kerrey: “Both of those pieces of legislation were landmark bills. The reason they were landmark bills is they laid a foundation…”

“Both of those pieces of legislation were landmark bills. The reason they were landmark bills is they laid a foundation upon which we are building this legislation. All of title III, which adds additional powers to what the taxpayers will be granted, was added as a consequence of evaluating whether or not the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights II has gone as far as we want to go. I say that because a lot of colleagues have come up and said, ``Well, does this legislation go too far; does it give taxpayers so many new rights that the IRS will not be able to do their job?'' which is to collect taxes? ``Is there any power left in the IRS?'' And the answer is yes. All through this we have been conscious of the need to balance, and what we have been able to do is look at the impact of Taxpayers' Bill of Rights II. We can see additional authority needs to be granted to taxpayers. I think it is an admirable balance, and it would not have been possible to get it done without Senator Grassley's longstanding interest and understanding and leadership on this issue. I publicly thank him for making certain that we extend additional rights without undercutting the authority of the IRS to do what we have asked it to do.”