IRS targeting scandal accountability lacking, Grassley bill would help
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today made the following comment on the Justice Department's announcement of a lack of criminal charges against Lois Lerner in the IRS targeting scandal. Grassley, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is a senior member and former Chairman of the Finance Committee, with jurisdiction over the IRS.
"The lack of accountability for the targeting scandal will hit a lot of Americans as plain wrong. Anybody who deals with the IRS is entitled to the expectation that IRS employees respect taxpayer rights, and that those employees are well aware of those rights. None of that was true in the targeting scandal, yet the responsible IRS employees, including Lois Lerner and her bosses, were allowed to move on. Where was the IRS commissioner while the agency was treating conservative groups so poorly? As a legislator, I'm working to fulfill my responsibilities to fix the IRS mess. I have pending legislation that would improve the way the IRS treats taxpayers in key areas. The bill includes extending a remedy to social welfare organizations to force answers in instances where the IRS fails to act on an application in a timely manner or makes a negative determination on their tax-exempt status. My bill updates the '10 deadly sins' of actions by IRS employees that require mandatory termination to include official actions taken for political purposes. These provisions and many others would help turn around the disastrous state of business at the IRS as exposed in the targeting scandal."
More information on Grassley's Taxpayer Bill of Rights Enhancement Act of 2015 is available here.
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Grassley on Prisons' Pork Removal: 'How Did this Stupid Decision Get Made?'
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley made the following statement after the Bureau of Prisons officially responded to his request for information regarding the decision to remove pork from the federal prisons' menus. After Grassley learned of the removal and asked questions, the bureau reversed its decision and put pork back on the menu.
Grassley's letter to the Bureau of Prisons is here. The bureau's response is here.
"I'll give the bureau credit for at least admitting they screwed up. They claimed at one point that the cost of pork was too high, and that the surveys showed that prisoners didn't like pork. None of that is accurate, so it begs the question, 'How did this stupid decision get made?' And, considering how things work in this town and the previous lack of candor, I don't buy their answer that the costs to implement the survey were negligible."
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