No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, I say thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to my colleagues for their hard work on this package of bills to rein in the IRS and make it more accountable to taxpayers.

Earlier this week, the taxpayers in my home State of Michigan and across the country reflected on another year of a tax burden that is too high and take-home pay that is too low. But not only is our current tax system broken, the agency in charge of enforcing it is, too. Time after time, the IRS has proven that it can't be trusted to clean up its act and fails to practice what it preaches.

In a report last year, the IRS inspector general found that hundreds of employees are violating IRS guidelines and failing to pay their personal tax obligations. Those are obligations, and I tend to think that the good employees of the IRS would be encouraged as well if their colleagues paid their taxes.

The No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act would simply--and this is what we are talking about--prevent the IRS from any additional hiring until it verifies that its current employees have paid their own taxes.

Now, a good friend and colleague of mine has described this as a waste of time. The single mom in Monroe, Michigan, doesn't think that this is a waste of time. The family farmer in Jackson doesn't think that this is a waste of time. The small-business owner in Charlotte doesn't think that this is a waste of time. Why? Because they all have to pay their taxes on time.

People who work at the IRS should have to play by the same rules as everyone else does. And, in fact, that might assist them in making sure that congressional employees pay their taxes too, and any other department of the Federal Government pays their taxes too, because why? They pay their taxes, and now they can do what their job asks them to do.

The good colleague and gentleman from Georgia understands, I am certain, the principle that we both know well, where it says: To whom much is given, much is required. Much responsibility has been given to the IRS, and much is required. Pay your taxes.

I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill.

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