Jason Chaffetz: “There is a need for this. I wish there wasn't a need for this. There are other more pressing things that we should be…”

“There is a need for this. I wish there wasn't a need for this. There are other more pressing things that we should be focused on. But this is $1 billion in uncollected taxes, taxes that are due by Federal workers. Again, I don't want to disparage the reputation of all Federal employees, but this small group--in excess now of 3 percent of our Federal workers--is putting tarnishment on those other employees. I want to point to a January 23, 2012, Federal Eye article--Ed O'Keefe is the author. Let me read a paragraph from his article. He said: But on Capitol Hill, 684 employees, or almost 4 percent, of the 18,000 congressional staffers owed taxes in 2010, a jump of 46 workers from 2009. Four percent of House staffers owed $8.5 million, and 3 percent of Senate employees owed $2.1 million, the IRS said. We actually get a report from the IRS, and it has a breakdown of the number of employees by department who aren't paying their Federal taxes. The Department of Treasury, they have one of the lowest percentages. Less than 1 percent of their employees don't pay their taxes, but they still have 1,181 employees at the Department of Treasury who aren't paying it. There's an uncollected $9.3 million. At the Federal Reserve, the Board of Governors, smaller in terms of their numbers, but you still had 91 employees at the Federal Reserve not paying their taxes--4.86 percent of their employees not paying over $1.2 million in taxes.…”