TAXES
IRS e-file sites can be hacked, watchdog reports
“Whether we like it or not, the criminals recognize that tax season is like Christmas for them,” said Craig Spiezle, executive director of the Online Trust Alliance (OTA), a cybersecurity watchdog that gave failing grades to nearly half of the firms approved by the Internal Revenue Service to provide free online tax filing.
The problem, said Spiezle, is that potential hackers now target every link in the supply chain of information — the taxpayer, the e-file companies and the IRS.
The OTA audit, which faulted websites for their lack of authenticated email addresses, was released just days before the IRS announced that its May 2015 data breach compromised sensitive information of more than 700,000 taxpayers — more than double the agency’s previous estimate.
Spear phishing attacks are the most common type of tax fraud, Spiezle said.
“It’s a typical consumer that is just getting an email that purports to come from the IRS. They open it up, and it says ‘we have a problem with your [tax] return.’ They open up that attachment and by doing that, that gets malware or key loggers on their machine,” he said.
He blamed poor management, not bad technology, for vulnerabilities such as misconfigured servers and a lack of protection from copycat websites.
“We tried to reach out to these firms in advance, and it turns out they don’t have any conduits or mechanism for people such as ourselves to try and responsibly disclose problems,” he said. “The whole point is these are not technology issues, these are operational issues.”
The IRS in February requested $11.8 billion in President Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget, an increase of 4.7 percent from 2016. Spiezle agreed that the agency is facing financial challenges. “They are being limited in what they can do.”
The following free e-file services received OTA’s stamp or approval: Tax TaxAct, ezTaxReturn.com, TaxSlayer, FreeTaxUSA, TurboTax Free File, H&R Block Free File. – Joana Suleiman
ELECTION
Government agencies prep for 2016 transition
At least 40 federal agencies will need to be more ambitious as they prepare for Jan. 20, 2017, administration leaders say.
On March 8, the Senate unanimously passed the Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2015, which requires presidential candidates to set up a team with agency leaders at least 6 months before Election Day. A senior career appointee at the General Services Administration will lead the candidates’ transition teams.
The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is adding training programs for its employees and agency ethics officers to help them vet and process applications for new political appointees. Max Tier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, said during a discussion at the OGE Summit last week the next administration should pursue the goal of having 400 political appointees Senate-confirmed by the first August recess.
The vetting process for political nominees, which takes an average of 50 days, could also be improved. To meet new goals the OGE is asking nominees, who have numerous applications and questionnaires to fill out for the White House, FBI and Senate, to send their financial disclosure forms early.
Nearly 60 percent of the questions overlap with each other so Lisa Brown, co-chair of the agency review for the Obama-Biden Transition Project, suggested agencies revisit their application forms and cut any questions that seem redundant.
“We seem to be adding and nobody has really gone back and tried to rationalize,” she said. “There are questions now that really feel out of date. If you think about the FBI questionnaire … about every place that you’ve traveled internationally and when. It’s just a different era.”
She said a standard form for new political nominees — similar to the common application students use when applying for college — could also save time for the applicants and agencies. – Joana Suleiman
EDUCATION
How to hire better teachers
According to a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, improving education could be as simple as improving the teacher hiring process. The paper identified several specific characteristics that were strong predictors of effective teachers.
Among the characteristics are undergraduate GPAs, SAT or ACT scores, graduate degrees and performance in a mock teaching lesson. The study examined teaching applicants, hiring outcomes and teacher performance in the District of Columbia Public Schools.
Surprisingly, the paper also found that high performance in these characteristics did not increase the odds of DCPS hiring an applicant. “Our results suggests [sic] that there exists considerable scope for improving teacher quality through the selection process,” researchers write. “Even among the top 5 percent of applicants only 30 percent ended up working in the DCPS.” The paper found that teachers who had 1-10 years of experience or who graduated from a university in the District were more likely to be hired, but weren’t actually more effective at teaching.
The paper was co-authored by five researchers: Brian Jacob with the University of Michigan, Benjamin Lindy with Teach for America, Jonah Rockoff with Columbia University, Rachel Rosen with MDRC and Eric Taylor with Harvard University. – Jason Russell
ENERGY
Americans back court’s decision on climate rules
Nearly half the country believes the Supreme Court took the right action in halting the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, according to new polling data.
The poll issued last week by Morning Consult showed 49 percent of respondents thought the court made the right decision in suspending the Clean Power Plan while the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reviews its legality.
Pro-coal groups immediately responded to the poll, saying “the data speaks for itself.”
“The American public overwhelmingly believes the Supreme Court made the right decision to stop EPA’s gross federalist overreach dead in its tracks,” said the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
The Clean Power Plan requires states to reduce emissions a third by 2030. Thirty states and dozens of industry groups argue that the EPA does not have the authority to move ahead with the regulations, which they say will raise energy prices and raise the risk of power outages.
“When one branch of government acts extra-judicially, it’s up to the other two to check their attempt and keep parity intact — just as the Founders envisioned,” says the pro-coal group. “This administration has repeatedly flouted the rulemaking process, and played fast and loose with the law. Morning Consult’s poll respondents are right — we must all abide by the law.”
The appeals court has scheduled oral arguments for June. — John Siciliano
CONSERVATION
U.S. agencies move to protect sharks
Government agencies are putting together their latest naughty list of countries that are violating U.S. laws that protect sharks from the lucrative fin-taking craze in Asia.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service and Commerce Department, in keeping with 2010 shark conservation laws, are preparing a report to Congress on known violators of shark-protection standards, according to a notice published in the Federal Register last week.
The agencies are particularly keen on identifying countries that have no rules in place to prohibit the taking of shark fins, including the tail.
The practice is particularly cruel, as sharks are routinely caught, stripped of their fins, and thrown back in the sea while still alive. Driving the practice is the highly lucrative market for fins in Asia as a popular form of folk medicine as well as shark-fin soup.
The report will be the fifth in the biennial series under the Shark Conservation Act. The Federal Register notice seeks information from the public on countries involved in shark-taking activities, including information on ships involved in the fishing of sharks; reports from off-loading facilities; port-side government officials; enforcement agents; military personnel; port inspectors; trans-shipment vessel workers and fish importers.
Subsequently, the fisheries service is establishing a temporary ban on shark fishing in the western Gulf of Mexico due to overfishing of several large shark species, including the hammerhead shark and blacktip shark.
The ban went into effect Saturday and ends Dec. 31, unless the fisheries service decides that the season can reopen sooner. — John Siciliano
HEALTHCARE
Letters to docs don’t curb opioid prescribing
Telling a doctor he is overprescribing an opioid doesn’t appear to stop the practice, according to a new study that takes aim at a key effort among policymakers in the battle against opioid abuse.
Public health experts and lawmakers firmly believe that part of the opioid abuse problem is that doctors aren’t educated enough about opioid prescribing. The White House, for instance, included prescriber education in a major plan to combat opioid abuse.
But a new study released last week found that targeting doctors with informative letters about prescribing practices didn’t stem the problem.
Researchers identified top prescribers of opioids using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. Those doctors were sent a letter informing them of the high rate, according to Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, which conducted the study.
“The investigators were unable to detect a statistically significant effect of the intervention on prescribing practices,” the university said.
However, the study results could still be useful in determining what intervention may be effective, the university said.
Opioid abuse kills 44 Americans a day, according to federal figures. Public health officials strongly believe that part of the problem is doling out too many painkillers for all sorts of ailments. — Robert King
