Grassley Seeks Detailed Accounting of IRS Whistleblower Office Obstacles

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa has asked the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to answer a detailed series of questions aimed at understanding why the IRS whistleblower office has been so slow in processing cases and making rewards.  Grassley expressed his "extreme disappointment in the management of the program" in a letter to the agency.

"The IRS does not have a problem attracting whistleblowers," Grassley said.  "The IRS has a problem processing whistleblower information and compensating whistleblowers in a timely manner.  I'm hearing frustration from whistleblowers, and my worst fears are coming true.  The lack of progress is demoralizing whistleblowers, and they might stop coming forward.  That would be a bad outcome for the taxpayers."

Grassley's latest inquiry was prompted in part by revelations that the director of the IRS whistleblower program was a panelist at the Offshore Alert Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami Beach.  "It seems the whistleblower office director's time might be better spent reviewing hundreds of existing cases instead of attending a conference that isn't directed at potential whistleblowers," Grassley said.

Grassley wrote to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to seek a status update on several benchmarks that would indicate progress in the whistleblower program.  The letter is the latest step in Grassley's oversight of the whistleblower office.

Grassley wrote the 2006 law improving the IRS whistleblower office.  He modeled the improvements after the successful 1986 whistleblower amendments to the federal False Claims Act, which have brought back more than $30 billion to the federal treasury and deterred even more fraudulent activity.

The text of Grassley's latest letter is available here.

The text of Grassley's September 2011 letter to the IRS is available here.  The IRS' November 2011 response is available here.

The text of Grassley's letter to the Treasury secretary in June 2010 is available here.

Higher education advocates released new data today showing that an anticipated increase in the student loan interest rate would cost Iowa students $250 million per year. The increase would affect federally subsidized Stafford loans, which are provided to almost 7.5 million low and moderate-income students nationwide each year. If Congress does nothing, then beginning on July 1st, the interest rate will double from 3.4% to 6.8% on new student loans.

"In today's economy, students need a college education to get ahead," said Sonia Ashe, Iowa PIRG Advocate. "Doubling the interest rate for student loans would make this goal harder to achieve for thousands of Iowans."

"I'm already going to graduate with a mountain of student debt," said Jessica Tobin at the University of Iowa. "If Congress lets the interest rate double, then I'm looking at even bigger loan payments and it's going to take longer for me to get on my feet financially after I graduate."

The average student borrower already graduates with over $25,000 in student loans. On average, the doubling of the interest rate would add approximately $1,000 for every year a student takes out a loan, adding up to more than $4,000 over a four-year education.

To stave off the rate hike, Congress needs to act by July 1st to maintain the existing interest rate. Without action, interest rates on these loans will double, resulting in significant new debt for future graduates. A vote on the issue is schedule in the United States Senate for Tuesday.

"Student debt can change the shape of a young person's life," said Laurie Wolf, a financial aid officer at Des Moines Area Community College. "When students graduate with high levels of student debt, it can force them to postpone major life events like marriage, parenthood, and home ownership. It's important to minimize that debt, including keeping interest rates low, in order to reduce the impact it has on the lives of our graduates."

Today, the Center for American Progress, Campus Progress, and the USAction Education Fund will release reports detailing how an increase in the Stafford student loan interest rate would impact a number of states. These reports will offer new broad analysis, state statistics, stories of people who could be impacted, and support from student body presidents and campus newspapers.

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Iowa PIRG, the Iowa Public Interest Research Group, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.

SPRINGFIELD - May 3, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn today issued a statement regarding the Illinois Senate's passage of HB 3810, which ends the troubled General Assembly tuition waiver program.

"Today, the Illinois Senate took a big step forward to do the right thing. I want to salute President John Cullerton for his leadership and urge the House to quickly concur with this long-overdue ethics reform.

"Abolishing a political scholarship program is the right thing for deserving students who need financial assistance to attend college. Illinois deserves to have a strong scholarship program that helps needy students go to college.

"As I have repeatedly advocated - scholarships - paid for by Illinois taxpayers- should be awarded only to those with merit who are in true financial need. As we continue to move forward to tackle reforming our pensions and Medicaid systems, this is an important bipartisan moment of progress.

"I look forward to working with the General Assembly night and day to make more progress in the remaining four weeks."

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after information from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee indicated a possible vote about holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.  Holder has refused to provide subpoenaed documents related to the congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious.

Grassley first began investigating alleged gunwalking in January 2011 after whistleblowers came forward to alert Congress about gunwalking in Arizona.  The Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder initially denied gunwalking occurred, but have since withdrawn the denials and admitted that ATF whistlebowers were right to complain about the reckless tactic.  Despite the constitutional responsibility of Congress to conduct oversight of the executive branch, the Justice Department has stonewalled every step of the investigation.  In fact, the Justice Department has provided 80,000 pages of documents to the Inspector General in connection with its investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, but has provided only 6,000 pages of documents to Congress.  The department has provided no legal justification for withholding each of those 74,000 pages.

"The subpoena authority of the House Oversight Committee, and the Chairman's willingness to use it, helped shed light on Operation Fast and Furious and the Justice Department's desire to allow guns to walk into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.  Congressman Issa deserves credit for moving forward on contempt.  The Attorney General and the Justice Department are thumbing their nose at the constitutional authority provided to the legislative branch to conduct oversight.