Charles Rangel: “I rise in strong support because of the bipartisan nature of the solution of a very serious problem that our Nation…”

“I rise in strong support because of the bipartisan nature of the solution of a very serious problem that our Nation faces with the Internal Revenue Service. I do not think anyone can deny that we are basically dealing with a group of dedicated people that do a very difficult job, but a very complex Tax Code that we have given to them. Yet, out of all of this, for whatever reasons, we were able to see vividly during the Senate hearings how certain people in that Service, probably because of lack of direction and governance, were abusing American taxpayers. Prior to this time there is no question that people in the tax-writing committee, which has the responsibility for oversight, was moving towards reform. But it was the restructuring commission that the gentleman from California [Mr. Matsui] and the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Cardin] and the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Portman] sat on that actually wrestled with it, took testimony, and came up with ways in which we could enjoy the expertise of the private sector and bring some balance, not only in terms of technology, but in terms of better protecting the taxpayer.”