Burr Reintroduces Bill to Clean up IRS Following Disastrous IG Report

Washington, D.C. - July 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Following the critical report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) reintroduced a commonsense bill to improve accountability at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). S. 1643, the Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act, will bar the IRS Commissioner from rehiring employees who separated from the agency due to substantiated conduct or performance issues. The report, The Internal Revenue Service Continues to Rehire Former Employees With Conduct and Performance Issues, found that hundreds of former IRS employees with documented issues were rehired by the agency in an 18-month span. This is the second TIGTA report finding a widespread practice of rehiring previously fired IRS employees, and is the result of a request from Sen. Burr in 2016 following testimony by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen that the agency had put an end to this practice.

“The rampant abuse at the IRS has continued and thrived for far too long,” said Senator Burr. “Whether it is the rehiring of previously terminated employees or continuing to give bonuses to poorly performing executives who can’t be fired – the delinquency at the IRS must end. It’s exactly actions like this that erode the public’s trust in their government. The American people are sick and tired of Washington at its worst. We have Americans paying the salaries of IRS workers who have repeatedly cheated the very government they took an oath to serve, and a Commissioner who won’t fire bad actors. The time to put a stop to these atrocious practices is now.”