Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have a very high opinion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, but what scares me in this bill are the numbers.

Right now, the IRS has about 78,000 employees, of which about 10,000 are what they describe as agents. It is not surprising that is less than you had in 1954 because, in 1954, nothing was computerized. Now, the 1099s, the W-2s, they come in and automatically the computers show whether they are on your return or not. If they are not on the return, you get a letter from the IRS saying you owe X amount of money.

Now, we are going, in one bill, from 78,000 employees, adding an additional 83,000. We have no idea how many of those are going to be agents poking around, looking at people, but you have to figure it is going to be an increase of five or six times what they already have.

Wisconsin and Massachusetts are States about the same size. You are talking about adding 1,600 employees--assuming it is the same per capita, about 1,600 new employees to Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

What are they going to do with 1,600 new employees? I mean, I can't imagine. If you deal with the IRS, the way they deal with it, they do things like: ``Well, you owe $20,000.'' You have to find a lawyer to fight that.

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