Washington, D.C.– Congressman Erik Paulsen (MN-03) voted in favor of four pieces of legislation that would increase accountability and customer service at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at a House Ways and Means Committee markup Wednesday. The bills would improve hiring standards and customer service at the agency. All four bills were approved by the panel.

“As tax season winds to a close, it’s timely to review the recent performance at the IRS,” said Paulsen. “With customer service at all-time lows, more accountability is needed to ensure taxpayers have the support they need to file their taxes. Additionally, action is being taken to make sure that employees at the IRS are following the same rules that taxpayers are expected to follow.”

The bills that were approved by the committee are listed below.

·         The No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act would ensure that the IRS does not have employees with delinquent tax debt. An inspector general report found that as many as 1,580 employees at the IRS were not current on their taxes.

·         The IRS Oversight While Eliminating Spending (OWES) Act prohibits the IRS from diverting user fees away from taxpayer services and instead requires them to be put into the general fund.

·         H.R. 4890 would prohibit the IRS from paying bonuses until the agency improves customer service. IRS customer service was at an all-time low in 2015, with phone help wait times over 30 minutes on average and two-thirds of helpline callers unable to reach an agency representative.

·         The Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act prohibits the IRS from rehiring employees that have been fired for misconduct. The agency has rehired 141 employees over a ten-year period that had previously been terminated by the agency for transgressions including not paying their taxes.

Paulsen, a champion of small business and advocate of free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and innovation, serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, and is co-chair of the Congressional Medical Technology Caucus.

For more information on Congressman Paulsen’s work in Congress visit Paulsen.house.gov.

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