Lawmakers Scrap Spending Bill Amendment Over Privacy Fears

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

23 November 2004

Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers have expressed anger over a provision contained in an end of session spending bill that would have allowed the chairmen of the Appropriations Committees to delve into private taxpayers’ tax returns.

The one line amendment to the $388 billion government financing bill was inserted at the request of Rep. Ernest Istook, an Oklahoman Republican, and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with responsibility for the IRS budget.

According to Istook and his spokesman John D. Scofield, the sole intent of the provision was to allow investigators acting on behalf of senior lawmakers to have access to IRS tax records to examine how money was being spent.

"Nobody's privacy was ever jeopardized,” by the provision, Istook commented in a statement defending the proposal.

However, this did nothing to quell fears from many lawmakers that the amendment would permit legislators to view the tax records of private citizens, and represented a violation of privacy.

"Something happened clearly in the dark of night. The Senate was totally amazed," Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R – Tex) observed in an appearance on CNN.

Despite protestations from Republican committee members that the measure had been misinterpreted and was only intended to increase IRS oversight, the offending provision will likely be removed from the text of the draft in a special session to be convened tomorrow.

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