Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2012

Floor Speech

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, once again the House finds itself considering a bill that unfairly targets the hard working public servants who every day are providing a wide array of public services from helping to nurse our wounded veterans, to discovering cures and treatments for diseases that plague millions of American families, to ensuring aviation safety, to protecting our borders, public safety and the food supply. Over the last two years, our Republican colleagues have repeatedly brought legislation to the floor to slash the pay and benefits of civil servants in order to protect special tax breaks for the super wealthy and special interests.

Obviously, all Americans should pay their taxes, and those who fail to do so should be penalized. But federal employees should not be denied the full complement of due process rights that are available to any other American. This bill would result in the firing of federal employees who may be legitimately contesting a tax liability through the established process. Moreover, by linking the firing of a federal employee to a lien, this bill would result in the firing of individuals who are already in the process of satisfying their tax obligation.
There are already laws and regulations on the books that address how tax debt should be handled and how federal employees who are delinquent on their payments should be disciplined.

In 2002, the IRS asked Congress to change the standard for determining when an agency was mandated to fire employees. Rather than firing every employee who fails to properly file their tax return, IRS created a hierarchy of penalties based on the seriousness and willfulness of the offense. This bill throws out that process and treats all delinquencies as if they were willful and deliberate.

Comparatively, federal employees have a compliance rate that is higher than the average American taxpayer. In 2010, 3.35 percent of federal employees were delinquent in their tax payments. That same year, the delinquency rate for the total universe of American taxpayers was 7.4 percent. Instead of making public servants the target of new, unnecessary and unfair legislation, we should instead be focusing on uniform ways to strengthen and better enforce existing laws and regulations governing tax delinquency.

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