Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) gave a scathing rebuke of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the Treasury Inspector General reported that the IRS lost millions of taxpayer’s personal information.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released a report earlier this month that revealed the IRS was not able to account for millions of taxpayers’ personal information that had been stored on microfilm.
The report indicated that the IRS microfilm information backups were not “adequately safeguarded” and that the IRS “is not in compliance” with federal requirements for the management of records.
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“Our review identified significant deficiencies in the IRS’s safeguarding, accounting for, and physical storage of its microfilm backup cartridges,” the report stated.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration noted, “The sensitive business and individual taxpayer information stored on the unaccounted for cartridges are key information that can be used to commit tax refund fraud identity theft.”
Appearing on the “Kudlow” show on Fox Business, Tenney explained that it is “unconscionable” that the IRS, tasked with overseeing “sensitive information,” is “too busy to get involved with the everyday taxpayer.”
Tenney’s statement followed guest host Brian Brenberg’s question regarding the service’s response to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s report. The IRS reportedly noted that safeguarding taxpayer records was not the agency’s top priority.
Tenney added, “We do a lot of work on IRS, they are behind on a lot of things and they want 87,000 new enforcement agents, to go after innocent, in most cases, people, who can’t afford to fight it.”
The New York representative also blasted the IRS for refusing to act quickly regarding the testimony of two IRS whistle-blowers on the Hunter Biden investigation.
“They are slow-walking that while we allow the statute of limitations to expire and they’re part of that,” Tenney stated. “We couldn’t get the information out from the IRS… The IRS is a disaster just like our other federal agencies.”
