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WASHINGTON
–Today,
U.S.
Senator
Tim
Scott
(R-SC)
joined
Senators
Richard
Burr
(R-NC),
Mike
Enzi
(R-WY),
Chuck
Grassley
(R-
IA),
Dean
Heller
(R-NV)
and
Johnny
Isakson
(R-GA)
to
introduce
the
Internal
Revenue
Service
(IRS)
Accountability
Act
of
2015.
This
legislation
will
keep
IRS
bureaucrats
accountable
to
the
American
people
by
giving
the
IRS
Commissioner
new
authority
to
fire
senior
executives
who
have
failed
in
their
performance
or
committed
misconduct.
This
legislation
is
based
on
a
law
Congress
passed
last
year
in
the
wake
of
the
VA
health
care
scandal
that
enables
the
Secretary
of
Veterans
Affairs
to
fire
senior
executives
for
misconduct.
Currently,
the
IRS
Commissioner
does
have
the
authority
to
fire
high
ranking
employees
for
certain
forms
of
misconduct,
but
has
not
yet
used
this
authority
against
those
who
engaged
in
political
targeting
of
taxpayers.
The
Administration
has
claimed
that
only
mismanagement
occurred
at
the
IRS
and
that
mismanagement
is
not
a
crime
and
has
used
this
logic
to
justify
its
failure
to
act
in
the
case
of
Lois
Lerner
and
others
who
targeted
Americans
based
on
their
political
beliefs.
This
bill
seeks
to
rectify
this
problem
by
giving
the
Commissioner
clear
authority
to
fire
employees
who
fail
to
meet
the
standards
of
conduct
and
performance
we
should
demand
of
senior
managers
at
Federal
agencies.
“For
too
long
the
American
people
have
been
told
there
was
nothing
the
IRS
Commissioner
could
do
to
hold
IRS
employees
who
targeted
conservative
and
religious
organizations
accountable
for
their
actions,”
said
Sen.
Scott.
“That’s
not
good
enough
for
the
American
people
and
that’s
not
good
enough
for
me,
and
that’s
why
I’m
pleased
to
join
my
colleagues
to
introduce
legislation
making
it
easier
to
fire
poorly
performing
senior
executives
at
the
IRS. I
am
committed
to
working
with
my
colleagues
to
get
all
the
answers
about
what
happened
at
the
IRS
and
preventing
it
from
happening
again,
because
Americans
on
all
ends
of
the
political
spectrum
need
to
be
able
to
live
without
fear
of
being
targeted
by
their
own
government
for
their
political
beliefs.”
“It’s
extremely
troubling
that
these
problems
have
persisted
for
so
long,”
said
Sen.
Burr.
“IRS
employees
must
be
held
accountable
for
misconduct.
Under
the
current
policy,
high
ranking
IRS
officials
can
cheat
on
their
taxes,
lie
to
Congress,
even
threaten
to
audit
people
for
personal
gain
–
all
without
risking
their
six
figure
government
salaries.
This
misconduct
is
absolutely
unacceptable
and
I
am
confident
we
will
put
a
stop
to
it.
The
American
people
deserve
better.”
“IRS
employees
should
swiftly
be
held
accountable
for
their
misdeeds,”
Sen.
Enzi
said.
“This
legislation
could
bring
that
needed
accountability
to
an
agency
that
has
a
history
of
serious
misconduct.”
“The
American
people
are
rightly
frustrated
when
senior
federal
employees
get
away
with
misconduct
and
poor
performance,”
Sen.
Grassley
said.
“It
sends
the
wrong
message
that
anything
goes
at
the
top
tiers
of
the
federal
bureaucracy.
Sometimes,
a
personnel
change
is
what
it
takes
to
begin
turning
things
around.”
“The
IRS
has
an
obligation
to
taxpayers
in
Nevada
and
across
the
country
to
ensure
it
lives
up
to
its
mission
of
providing
top
quality
service
and
enforcing
the
law
with
integrity
and
fairness
to
all,”
said
Sen.
Heller.
“It
is
totally
unacceptable
for
IRS
employees
to
discriminate
and
commit
misconduct
based
on
a
taxpayers’
political
views.
There
must
be
ramifications
for
this
egregious
behavior.
Last
year,
I
was
an
adamant
supporter
of
giving
the
Secretary
of
Veterans
Affairs
the
ability
to
fire
senior
executives
for
misconduct.
Granting
the
IRS
Commissioner
similar
authority
to
fire
senior
executives
who
have
failed
in
the
performance
of
their
duties
is
desperately
needed
at
the
IRS.”
“For
far
too
long,
so
many
of
our
taxpayer-funded
federal
agencies
have
operated
unchecked
under
a
culture
of
waste,
fraud
and
abuse,”
said
Sen.
Isakson.
“As
chairman
of
the
Senate
Committee
on
Veterans’
Affairs,
I
have
seen
firsthand
the
bureaucratic
hurdles
that
prevented
leadership
at
the
scandal-ridden
Department
of
Veterans
Affairs
from
holding
bad
actors
appropriately
accountable
for
their
misdeeds
and
inappropriate
conduct.
That’s
why
Congress
gave
the
secretary
of
the
VA
firing
authority
to
remove
employees
that
are
found
to
be
directly
responsible
for
misconduct.
Mirroring
the
reforms
we
enacted
last
Congress
at
the
VA,
I
strongly
support
this
measure
to
hold
errant
employees
at
the
Internal
Revenue
Service
accountable
and
help
restore
Americans’
trust
in
the
IRS.”
This
legislation
applies
to
the
highest
ranking
IRS
employees
in
the
Senior
Executive
Service
(SES).
Actionable
examples
of
misconduct
include
but
are
not
limited
to:
threatening
to
audit
someone
for
personal
gain,
conducting
a
seizure
without
approval,
assaulting,
harassing
or
violating
the
civil
rights
of
a
taxpayer
or
a
coworker,
lying
under
oath,
falsifying
or
destroying
records,
concealing
information
from
Congress,
underreporting
income,
and
failing
to
file
a
tax
return
on
time.
The
IRS
Accountability
Act
has
been
endorsed
by
the
National
Taxpayers
Union
(NTU).
Last
month,
Senator
Scott
introduced
the
End
the
Partisan
IRS
Culture
(EPIC)
Act
to
decrease
political
decision
making
at
the
IRS
by exempting
the
agency
from
labor
organization
and
collective
bargaining
requirements.
It
would
amend
the
Federal
Service
Labor-Management
Relations
Statute
to
designate
the
IRS
as
an
agency
that
is
exempt
from
labor
organization
and
collective
bargaining
requirements.
In
2011,
at
a
cost
of
$27
million
to
hard-working
taxpayers,
IRS
employees
spent
more
than
600,000
hours
of
official
time
on
union
duties;
more
than
200
IRS
employees
worked
full
time
on
union
issues.
Additionally,
almost
50,000
IRS
employees
pay
union
dues
and
more
than
95%
of
the
union’s
political
contributions
have
gone
to
Democratic
candidates
in
recent
elections. In
recent
years,
hyper-politicization
at
the
agency
led
to
conservative
organizations
being
singled
out
based
on
the
existence
of
key
words
in
their
names,
or
any
other
indication
that
they
held
conservative beliefs.
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