House Passes Noem’s IRS Workforce Integrity Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today led the House in passing her Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act (H.R.3724), which would prohibit the IRS from rehiring an employee who has been fired for certain forms of misconduct. The legislation passed with broad bipartisan support by a margin of 345-78.
“The IRS has rehired hundreds of people who had already been fired once for misconduct. This practice needs to end and that’s exactly what my bill does. It’s just commonsense,” said Noem. “Much more must be done to correct our broken tax system. Nonetheless, as we work toward a fairer, flatter, and simpler tax code, I’ll be looking for more opportunities to make the IRS more accountable to you.”
In February 2015, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) publicly released a new report explaining it had “identified hundreds of former employees with prior substantiated conduct or performance issues ranging from tax issues, unauthorized access to taxpayer information, leave abuse, falsification of official forms, unacceptable performance, misuse of IRS property, and off-duty misconduct.”
The agency went on to say that nearly one in five of the rehired employees with a record of prior misconduct had performance issues when they returned to the IRS. For more information on TIGTA’s findings, click here.
Pretty sad that we need this kind of legislation but glad that we have a Rep. that recognized it and was able to get the bill through the House.
How about a rep that gives workers just lip service .and doesnt do anything about spending.
Arguably, the best part of this short bill is Section 3, which says in full: “No additional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements of this Act and the amendments made by this Act. Such requirements shall be carried out using amounts otherwise authorized.”
Just exactly how much does it cost to not hire a person or to fire a person anyway??
With the gubmint, it’s big bucks to do either; inefficiency personified.