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Today, Congressman Dan Burton co-signed a letter with many of his colleagues addressed to the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security requesting that they conduct an oversight hearing on the new airport screening procedures. 

In recent weeks, Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) new airplane passenger searches have left travelers feeling angered as well as apprehensive about booking their next trip. A number of residents from Indiana’s 5th Congressional District have contacted Representative Burton’s office voicing their aggravation towards TSA.

The scanners, which now stand between passengers and their departing flight use either millimeter waves or low-dose x-rays to perform what have been called “virtual strip searches,” to ensure flyers are not concealing any questionable metallic and non-metallic items beneath their clothes.

By the end of the year, TSA plans to have 500 scanners deployed to airports nationwide.

Another issue brought to Rep. Burton’s attention by his constituents was the demeanor and “lack of human regard” TSA officials have been displaying to passengers. While TSA tries to balance safety and travelers’ right to privacy, media has brought attention to the challenges facing medical patients, the elderly, and children. Most agree that full body scans and pat downs are needed at this time in our history to safeguard Americans who fly, but there is a need to greatly improve TSA’s enhanced search protocol, starting with personnel.

For now, those who are planning to brave airports this holiday season, be prepared for longer lines and increased security. For example, more and more people are trying to travel without having to check-in their luggage which in turn makes screening hundreds of backpacks and near-busting athletic bags that much more difficult.




For helpful tips: http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/screening_experience.shtm

Last Tuesday night a GOP tsunami washed over America sweeping away an historic number of Democrat lawmakers on the federal, state and local level. The American people, frustrated by government run amok sent a very powerful reminder to every elected official of Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words at Gettysburg; that our government is a government of the people, by the people, and most importantly, FOR the people. We must not forget that or we will overstep our mandate and find our tenure in the majority to be very short.

First and foremost, the People want us to cut government spending. We have done it before and we can do it again. In March of 1995, the first Republican majority in the House of Representatives in 40 years, brought forward a rescission bill cutting $17 billion in spending across twelve different cabinet agencies, the Congress, White House and a variety of independent agencies. This new Republican majority must move as quickly to bring a rescission package to the floor. President Obama said that “he would be happy” to sit down with Congressional Republicans and go line by line through the budget to address our country’s enormous fiscal challenges. It’s up to the president to make good on his offer. Going forward, we have to impose hard, binding limits on the government’s ability to spend taxpayer money; things like automatic sunsets on all federal programs, and requiring a two-thirds recorded vote in the House of Representatives and in the Senate to increase the statutory limit on the public debt to force us to stop borrowing money.

Next the People want us to cut their taxes. It is not enough to simply stop the tax hike from taking effect on January 1, 2011; we must go further and cut taxes to get our economy moving again. Ronald Reagan understood this simple concept and cut personal and business taxes in order to jumpstart economic growth – and it worked. It can work again. For example, reducing the lowest individual income tax rates from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent will result in every taxpaying-family in America getting an immediate increase in their take home pay – an average benefit of $500 in tax relief from the drop in the 10 percent bracket and $1,200 from the drop in the 15 percent bracket. Similarly, the United States currently has the second highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized nation, putting American workers and businesses at a huge competitive disadvantage. Economists estimate that simply lowering the top business tax rate from 35 percent to 22 percent could create 350,000 manufacturing jobs and 2.13 million jobs overall.

Last, but by no means least; the People want us to fundamentally reshape how Congress conducts its business so our time and energy is focused on their priorities. During the 111th Congress the House of Representatives spent hundreds of hours “debating” resolutions on things like the 2,560th anniversary of Confucius, but we only took two hours to consider the government takeover of the health care industry known as Obamacare; that’s simply ridiculous.  We must bring real reforms forward that make the People’s house run smarter, cheaper and more transparently.

If we do all of these things and remember to keep listening to the needs of the American people first and foremost, we can avoid the mistakes and ethical problems of the soon to be departed Democrat majority. If not, election night in 2012 could very well end up being a reverse of this year and end up being a long night for Republicans.

Via the Internal Revenue Service office in Indianapolis:

INDIANAPOLIS - The IRS is warning taxpayers about a new phishing scam. Phishing, a word play on “fishing” for information, is a scam in which Internet fraudsters send seemingly legitimate e-mail messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information.

Alternately, the purpose of an e-mail scam may be to download malware, or malicious code, onto the recipient’s computer when the recipient opens an attachment to the e-mail or clicks on a link within the e-mail. The malware could take over the victim’s computer hard drive, giving someone remote access to the computer, or it could look for passwords and other information and send them to the scamster. 

The IRS wants Hoosiers to be aware of a recent scam in which recipients receive an e-mail that claims to come from the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System.  EFTPS is a tax payment system that allows individuals and businesses to pay federal taxes electronically via the Internet or phone. 

“The e-mail states that tax payments made by the e-mail recipient through EFTPS have been rejected,” said Jodie Reynolds, IRS Spokesperson. “The e-mail then directs recipients to a bogus website containing malicious software that infects the intended victim’s computer. To avoid the bogus website and malware, do not click on any links, open any attachments or reply to the sender for any e-mail you may receive that claims to come from EFTPS.”

“The IRS and the Financial Management Service, the Treasury bureau that owns EFTPS, never communicates payment information through e-mail,” Jodie said.

If you receive an IRS related e-mail that you suspect is a phishing attempt or directs you to an imitation IRS website, please forward it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. You can also visit IRS.gov and enter the keyword phishing for additional information.

Since 2007, the IRS has required Non-Profits with revenues below $25,000 to file a form 990 to be tax compliant.  Any Non-Profit that has failed to file a form 990 each year since 2007 will lose its tax exempt status on October 15, 2010.  Here are some helpful links to find out if your organization is at risk, and if so, how to file the appropriate form.

 
The list of at risk Non-Profits in Indiana is available here: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225889,00.html
 

To view frequently asked questions to the IRS about form 990 compliance, click here: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225954,00.html

Click here for complete details on this situation from the IRS: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=225959,00.html

Click here for forms and instructions for exempt organizations: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=228897,00.html

 

On Wednesday July 14, 2010 Rep. Dan Burton spoke to congress about the inconsistent immigration policies regarding the lawsuit against Arizona and sanctuary cities.