This comes as a brief update on the status of the FY 2005 Appropriations bill (HR 4818). Although the bill was approved by both the House and the Senate, a controversial provision allowing “agents” of the House or Senate Appropriations Committees to access IRS facilities and individual tax return information was discovered and led key Senators to object to sending the bill to the President for signature.
According to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, the provision was misunderstood attempt to provide congressional oversight of the IRS. He explained the intention behind it in the November 24 Congressional Record,
“Mr. Speaker, I regret that some have misinterpreted section 222 in the omnibus bill. The administration had requested an unprecedented increase to hire additional staff for the IRS’s processing and enforcement activities. Because of this more than $500 million increase in funds, the subcommittee felt it necessary to conduct proper oversight. The provision was simply an attempt to exercise our constitutional stewardship of the IRS’s budget request, with no intention to review or investigate individual tax returns. This intent was clearly communicated in a colloquy with the chairman of Ways and Means Committee during Saturday’s floor debate.
In order to allow oversight of these funds without infringing upon individual’s privacy, the subcommittee requested that IRS draft the language. Two days prior to the bill being considered by the House, 17 staff members from the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, read through every word of the subcommittee’s bill and report. Clearly, there was never any desire to access personal information and it’s unfortunate that some have misrepresented and exaggerated the purpose of this language. Nevertheless, I support the removal of the provision to end the confusion surrounding the issue.”
The omnibus remains in the Senate, “held at the Desk,” until the House approves separate language that will strike this provision from the omnibus. In his Nov. 20 speech to colleagues recorded in the Congressional Record, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist explained,
“A lot of people have been wondering exactly what is going on with the Omnibus bill, which people expect to vote on later tonight, which we will be voting on shortly. We will lay out the unanimous consent request in a few moments.
The language we have been talking about over the last 2, 2 1/2 hours–I will refer to it as the Istook language–everybody agrees should not be in the underlying Omnibus bill. It was brought to people’s attention when staff had looked at it late this afternoon, and everybody agrees it should not be in there.
The challenge we have had, from a procedural standpoint, is that the House has passed the Omnibus bill with that in it. Now we are to address it, and both Members of the House, including the Speaker, whom I have talked to directly, and our colleagues say it should not be there.
Procedurally, how do we accomplish that? Once we pass this bill, it would become the law of the land. It should not be there, but it would be there for a period of time. The potential for abuse would exist.
Mutually, we have agreed the only way to eliminate that is to send a correcting enrollment resolution back to the House of Representatives. The problem is they are not there. What we will do shortly–it will be in the UC–is we will pass that resolution, send it to the House. The House will receive that most likely on Wednesday. We also tonight will pass a continuing resolution, which we will comment on shortly, to allow business to continue tonight; and we will address the Omnibus and will vote on the Omnibus bill tonight and hopefully pass that bill. That bill will be sent to the desk, and it will be held there until the House acts, which will likely be Wednesday. At that point, and not until that point, this bill will actually be sent to the House or actually become law. Thus, there will be no window where this clause, this Istook language, will be law. It will not pass until it has been corrected in the bill, taken out of the underlying Omnibus bill…”
The Senate has already passed separate legislation (H.Con.Res.528) to make several corrections in the enrollment of HR 4818. A summary of the bill provided by the Library of Congress on the THOMAS website (Legislative Information on the Internet) notes the resolution,
“Directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives to make the following corrections in the enrollment of H.R. 4818 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005): (1) remove provisions relating to the collection of State unemployment compensation debts and add provisions directing the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish information comparisons and disclosures to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to assist in the collection of delinquent nontax debt owed to the United States; (2) reduce from .83 to .80 percent the across-the-board rescissions applicable to the budget authority in specified appropriations Acts for FY 2005; and (3) remove a provision requiring the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide designated agents of the House or Senate Appropriations Committee with access to IRS facilities and tax return information.”
It was the Senate’s expectation that the enrolling resolution to remove this language would be approved by the House during the Nov. 24th proceedings. Although there was discussion of this provision during debate on the continuing resolution, the House did not pass the correcting enrollment resolution, H.Con.Res.528. According to press accounts in National Journal’s Congress Daily PM, Congress will approve legislation that will void this provision from the omnibus bill when it returns for business next week.
We are still operating under a continuing resolution, which runs through December 8.