Four Republican senators introduced legislation Tuesday that would ban the Internal Revenue Service from rehiring employees who have been fired for bad conduct and poor performance.
Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Dean Heller of Nevada and Mike Enzi of Wyoming submitted the Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act of 2016 as the upper chamber’s response to a Treasury Department report that said the agency sometimes takes fired employees back.
“IRS employees who were fired for serious offenses and gross misconduct like fraud, falsification of documents, and unauthorized access to taxpayer information shouldn’t be allowed back in the agency at all,” Burr wrote in a joint statement.
“This is insulting to the American people and the employees who do serve honorably, and simply gives bad actors a chance to bilk the taxpayers a second time. Even an individual with ‘DO NOT REHIRE’ stamped on their files was mistakenly hired again. This practice must end now. It is the definition of insanity.”
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Isakson said “the lack of accountability at federal agencies is destroying Americans’ trust in their government,” but said the bill could improve the public’s trust in the IRS’s hiring and firing practices.
Last year, Republican Reps. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Peter Roskam of Illinois introduced H.R. 3724, which would also deny the IRS commissioner from rehiring formerly terminated employees.
