by the irs.good point there are other agencies using it as well. >> the irs is currently in the process of purchasing an additional stingray unit, additional technology at the cost of several thousand dollars. do you believe that's in the best interest of the taxpayers? >> i don't know that i have enough information to answer that question. i need to know who is going to use it and what are the protections for using it. i don't have the knowledge about that. >> if it were available to anyone on the civil side of the irs as opposed to the criminal side and due process protection and court orders. >> let me ask the question this way. >> of the hundred and 12 recommendations that gao made to any of those 113 recommendations encourage the irs to purchase an additional stingray technology unit question and. >> not that i know. >> that's my understanding to. >> but would you potentially agree with me that it infringes on the taxpayers you're supposed to be advocating for. it infringes on their most fun

in a report released last month on irs information security, gio identified specific irs as beinglities unnecessarily vulnerable. made 45 new recommendations on how to better protect this data and identify 49 prior security recommendations that the irs has failed to implement. last year, chairman brady and irstor rubio wrote to the for an update on recommendations relevance to today's hearing. i was disappointed to learn that several continue to remain on implement it. access -- i to would like to ask the recommendations you deem most important, and describe whether incidents like the unauthorized access of identity protection personal information tools, whether those recommendations have been implement it, i would love to ask the irs to respond to the status of these recommendations as well. mr. chairman, as it relates to the latter point, we believe that if our recommendations have been implemented, we cannot guarantee that the breach would not have occurred. it would have been much more difficult for that to have happened, but i would like to defer to my colleague, michael mckenney,

i have advocated that the irs offer online account access to taxpayers and i believe the irs is wrong in assuming that online accounts will substantially reduce taxpayer demand for telephone and face-to-face assistance. for many reasons, including millions of taxpayers do not have internet access, millions of taxpayers with internet access do not feel comfortable trying to resolve important financial matters over the internet. particularly in the face of massive security breaches an online government systems. many tax payers are not cookie-cutter. it's best suited for conversation and taxpayers insist upon that. it's critical they do not base future plans on things that might not materialize. they need to provide the same type of service that financial institutions provide. mobile banking users are utilizing new platforms on a consistent basis, they have also maintain connections to their banks to the more traditional bank and atm system. despite this evidence of consumer behavior in the financial sector, they have been reducing face-to-face service and has switched to an appointment

to the irs. in addition, we reemphasized the importance of implementing 49 recommendations that we had made previously that were yet implemented. one area we were concerned about was in 28 instances, the irs asserted they had implemented our recommendations for prior recommendations, but in our subsequent testing, we found that nine of those 28 instances, the problem had not been fixed, so we are very concerned about this. this included access to employees and visitors to one of our computer facilities, where the list had not been updated as appropriate. we have gotten a lot of recommendations to strengthen the irs's computer security program. we are hopeful that they will rigorously implement all 94 recommendations that we have outstanding. with regard to identity theft, i am pleased to report that congress had acted on recommendations that we had made to allow for more timely filing by employers on w-2 day. as you recall, mr. chairman, i was here last year before this committee, talking about t

irs. even with constrained resources we devote significant time and attention to the challenge. we work continuously to protect our main computer systems from cyber attacks and to safeguard taxpayer information stored in the databases. the systems withstand one million attempts each day of fraud. we are continuing to battle the growing problem of stolen identity refund fraud. over the past few years we have made steady progress in protecting against fraudulent refund claims and criminally prosecuting those who engage in this crime. we have found the type of criminal we are dealing with changed. the problem used to be random individuals filing a few dozen or hundreds tax returns at a time. now it is more and more crime here and in other countries and gathering personal data from sources outside of the irs they can do a better job of fraud. to improve our efforts against this complex and evolving threat, in march 2015, we zoined with leaders of the electronic tax industry, sought wear and th

the american people had a right to get the fact regarding the irs targeting the the irs had a duty to comply with its congressional investigation but instead they iran's stonewalled us thousands of e-mails have been destroyed the american people may very well never get the entire truth as relates to this scandal. it would be unthinkable for a taxpayer to treat an irs audit the way the irs has treated the congressional investigation. attacks their destroyed documents subject to a summons on the irs, attacks they would be in the world over. a taxpayer made false statements in response to an investigation, it is safe to say that taxpayers would not get away with it if they taxpayer shared basic compliance with the investigation it's a good bet the investigation would not separate them. the question is is acceptable for that one of most powerful agencies in government to operate under lower standards of conduct than that which is applied to the taxpayers, the commission is charged with auditing. i've no doubt american taxpayers find such an arrangement to be unacceptable. shirley is how s

another problem here is with the irs. i don't know any aspect of the eitc where they have really made the rules more complicated than what congress has given them. i think instead the irs has tried to simplify as much as it can the complex rule that congress has deemed fit to write into law. i think if there's going to be simplification of the rules, obviously action needs to be taken by congress. there's clearly room where this could be done. the paper mentioned in passing, the excessive investment rules, they are intended to prevent asset holders with receiving the eit c. the plane is probably not worth the candle. i would mention that when the eit c phases out from the maximum amount you can claim, the phaseout phaseout is based on the larger of their labor income or their adjusted gross income which includes investment income and on other non-labor income. the rules already have a significant provision to keep people with large amount of investment income or other types from getting benefits so the separate investment

irs requesting information. the president acknowledging wrongdoing and pledges cooperation. >> it's inexcusable and americans are right to be angry about it. our administration has to make sure we're working hand in hand with congress to get this thing tixed. >> by august, the oversight committee issues its first subpoena and the committee sends a letter to the treasury secretary reminding him of the obligation to preserve all e-mails. at this point, three congressional committees, the inspector general and the doj all have investigations under way. fast forward nine months. after he condemned the targeting, president obama states in a february 2014 interview that there is not a bit of corruption. >> not even mass corruption or a smidgen of corruption. >> all the investigations are still open. even the investigation he ordered was not complete. so how did the president arrive at this conclusion? what did he become aware of in those nine months? commissioner koskinen appears before multitell congressional panels

to the irs. in addition, we -emphasized the importance of implementing 49 recommendations we'd made previously that were yet implemented. one area we were concerned about with this most recent audit was in 28 instances irs asserted that it had implemented our recommendations for prior recommendations, but in our subsequent testing we found in 9 of those 28 instances indeed the problem had not been fixed so we're very concerned about that. this included access to employees and visitors to one of irs' computing facilities where lists had not been updated as appropriate. so, we've got a lot of recommendations to strengthen irs' computer security program. we're hopeful that they'll rigorously implement our recommendations over the next few years. all 94 recommendations that we have outstanding. now, with regard to identity theft, i'm very pleased to report that the congress had acted on recommendations that we had made to allow for more timely filing by employers of w-2 data. as you recall, mr. chair

. >> by the irs, yeah. good point. there are other agencies using it too, i believe without 4th amendment probable cause-type of warrants. and that the irs is currently in the process of purchasing an additional stingray unit, additional technology at the cost of several hundred thousand dollars. would you believe -- do you believe that's in the best interest of taxpayers? >> i don't know that i have enough information to answer that question. i need to know who is going to use it and what are the protections for using it. and i don't have the knowledge about that. if it were not -- if it were available to anyone on the civil side of the irs as opposed to the criminal side and due process protections and court orders were not -- >> let me ask the question, ms. olson. of those 112 recommendations that g.a.o. made to deal with the tax gap, that we now know should be 113 recommendations based on the discussion between you and the chairman, do any of those 113 recommendations encourage the irs to purchase an ad

irs. the allegations of misconduct against mr. koskinen are serious. volumes of information crucial into the investigation of the targeting scandal were destroyed. before the tapes were destroyed, congressional demands including subpoenas about the targeting scandal went unanswered and were not complied with. mr. koskinen provided testimony concerning irs efforts to provide nofgs congress. these are very serious allegations of misconduct. in committee has taken these allegations seriously. over the past several months, this committee has poured through thousands of pages of information produced by the investigation into this matter. on may 24, this committee held a hearing at which the house oversight and government reform committee formerly presented its findings and evidence to the members of this committee. then on june 22, this committee held a second hearing to allow outside experts to assess and comment on the evidence presented to the committee at its may 24, 2016, hearing. and the

i have met with 20,000 irs employees in person.very employee, every manager, has to feel that it is part of the responsibility to let us know if things are not going well. if someone has made a mistake or if there is a problem, we need to know about it. people, bado tell news is good news. the problem we cannot help with is if we are not told. we still have 85,000 employees. all of the need to be comfortable, that if they see something not going well, or have a suggestion about how things could be better, we need to hear about it. the "we" includes in serious cases, people at the very top, including the commissioner. greta: we have a little over five minutes. if we could go back to auditing the four of questions, americans might be curious how the irs decides who gets audited. what is the process? commissioner koskinen: very good question. by and large, the vast majority of the audits are selected automatically.we have filters looking at what would generate questions about her return. we have 150 million returns a year. we are not

. >> the commissioner of the irs. the two commission to subpoena. >> mr. de santos. >> i recognize the gentleman from michigan mr. conyers. >> may i thank my two colleagues for their testimony and their concern about this matter? is there any way mr. chaffetz that we can determine who was on the tape that you received consent to play for 10 minutes? >> i'm sorry the question who was on the tape? >> yeah, who was the woman on the tape that was interpreting it? >> a staff number for the oversight and government reform committee. do you mean the voiceover? >> yes. >> she was a staff person for the oversight committee. >> well, i didn't know that before just now and i'm sorry, don't want to raise anymore objections that have already been raised this morning but it seems a little bit unusual that this was a tape that you didn't identify who it was before it started playing. so what i'm concerned with is are we talking about issues in the irs which is under the usual criticism and in these recent circumstances even more tha

you are the top manager of the irs, so when the inspection general conclude that had the irs did not put forth an effort to uncover additional responsive emails and that the backup tapes were destroyed as a result of irs management failing, the inspector general was referring to you the manager of the irs; is that correct? >> as the leader of the organization, i am responsible for the management of it. there are a lot of managers there but ultimately any director of the organization is responsible for its operations. >> after you received congressional subpoena which affirmatively require that you protect all emails related to this subject, what affirmative steps did you take personally to ensure all responsive documents were preserved? >> i met with senior executives and was assured that an appropriate document retention order had been put out the prior year, the woman acting as my could believe at the time sent a follow-up to remind them that they ensure that all available information is being preserved. i was assured that that was being done. >> did you send anyone to different lo

as it did digitally enable the irs. to address the urgent problems there is a security summit that we applaud this collaboration for the ira's to work together to find solutions. taxpayer identities is foundational the security summit is working towards the solutions of the challenge. focusing on the future state it isn't quick and mostly done by paper from. most have no idea about tax information and often greeted with long wait times it extended the answer period. especially for the 43% to have to interact with the irs out said a filing a tax return. the irs kermit's state -- current states is pessimistic about the near-term possibility but the irs has committed to the taxpayer service model the vision alliance without taxpayer should be served by the tax administrator and allows taxpayers to foley understand the tax obligations and allows a taxpayer to secure the interact in the way they want to be served. batista not revolutionary statements but many other companies provide that today. so what does the future state

butler: the irs's willingness to do so. the irs is clearly the tax administrator. them dealing with private industry, they are doing it more and more. the chairman: we are trying to go to a virtual customer service representative. so you are saying they are not willing to help the stakeholders authenticate? is a pretty bold statement. if it is true we need to address it. that is a bold statement. butler: the irs needs to view us as a partner. at definitely need to look the best technology out there. i'm not sure that looking inside the irs to understand it is the best place. chairman: how can mr. lynch and i assist you with the irs to make sure that it is a hand in glove approach versus a contentious approach? esther butler: it is tenuous. mr. butler: i said tenuous. by encouraging the irs to work with private industry. there needs to be a partnership, a true partnership, between the industry and the irs when it comes to all things related to technology. the irs can't be expected to be a technology leader. there are many other people out there who are technology le

so we issue a subpoena to the irs. they know they have -- imagine if this had happened to a regular person. imagine this. imagine if the irs sent you a notice and sent you a summons and you said you know what, i have it. i have all the information, i have the data, and i'm going to get it to you. yeah, we got it. we got this dragnet out. we're getting every bit of it. and then, and then they said, yeah, you know, we have it, and then they sat for months and they destroyed it. and then they came back -- imagine if you went back to the irs and said, you know what, that information, yeah, i had it and i shredded it. you can't have it anymore. what do you think the irs would do to you? they would drag you into court, put handcuffs on you and you'd be in jail, and you probably should be. we're not suggesting that we prosecute mr. koskinen criminally. but he has all of the resources, 90,000 employees, billions of dollars at his disposal, he spent $20 million, roughly, 250 attorneys, we were told, and they couldn't find them?

basically caved because of the irs scandal. what is your response to that? you anycan't tell details and that one and particular, but as a general matter we have been sensitive to concerns about people who .pplied we have taken all of the ie jeez recommendations. everyone deserves to be treated fairly no matter the are. the matter their political views. while the inspector general suggested that the criteria are unclear and that we should improve and clarify the regulation. we are still operating under the old regulation. congress has made a decision that we should no longer do any work. in the meantime, we continue to be a business. people are applying for positions and we are reviewing and processing those. for conservative groups, liberal groups, those right in the middle. they all deserve to be treated quickly and fairly. is thatf the criticisms the group got little attention from the irs. you takeattention do part in the tax-exempt and service. john: i can't tell you what the predecessors did. all i can tell you is that in

in a report released last month, the irs, on irs information security, gao identified specific irs vulnerabilities. the sensitive tax information of millions of americans . . . . . . . >>> why don't we do work on learning more about her legislation and get back to you. thanks, everybody. >> as this white house briefing comes to a close. if you missed any of the briefing, find it online c-span.org. as you saw at the top of the brief, there was an update on the zika virus from the and i would like to irs to rerespond to the status of the recommendations. >> as it relates to the latter point, we believe if our recommendations had been implemented, while we cannot guarantee the breach would not it would have been much more difficult for that to have happened, but i would like to defer to my colleague, michael mckinney, for the additional response. multifactor authenitication. there's ideas we expressed in the past that are primary here. and that is the irs' willingness to accept risks, in these areas without really very well following a process to show why, to document why they've accepted those risks

in the irs targeting investigation.hen, at noon, we take you live to phoenix where the democratic national committee is considering its platform ahead of next month's national convention. >> known as the center of the country music industry, this weekend, the c-span cities tour explores the history and literary culture of nashville. ewing discusses his forthcoming book describing how a nashville venue became the place for civil rights rallies and the home for the grand ole opry. >> the civil rights movement was very important in nashville, tennessee. a few blocks from here, students counter sit in, powe including congressman john lewis. they got arrested, they challenged the system of what was going on in nashville, tennessee, and the country. visitamerican history tv, the jackson's home and learned about the property history and how it grew from a two-story log a residence. country musicthe hall of fame and museum. cash and bobjohnny dylan and how music helped to bridge differences. they brought a lot of rock 'n roll p

. >> by the irs, yeah. good point. there are other agencies using it too, i believe without fourth amendment probable cause type of warrants. and that the irs is currently in the process of purchasing an additional sting ray unit, additional technology at cost of several hundred thousand dollars. would you believe, do you believe that's in the best interests of taxpayers? >> i don't know that i have enough information to answer that question. i need to know who is going to use it and what are the protections for using it. and, i don't have the knowledge about that. if it were not, if it were available to anyone on the system side of irs as opposed criminal side and due process protections and court orders were not -- >> let me ask the question this way, miss olson. >> yes. >> of those 10012 recommendations gao made, we know frankly should be 113 recommendations based on the discussion between you and the chairman, do any of those 113 recommendations encourage the irs to purchase an additional stingray techn

families and irs families.while there was a lot of overlap between, though some overlap, not enough between the eligibility criteria for irs to be able to use snap their to definitively rule somewhat and for some out. if they don't come if the data i could have to definitively rule summit in or out during processing and there's just an indication of who irs should audit, it's not helping irs above and got what they are already doing. >> dvd medicaid or not? >> no. they just looked at s.n.a.p. and tanf. >> tanf is a teeny, teeny program. okay. next question. in the brown shirt. wait for the microphone. that you. is it brown? >> green. >> i apologize. >> my son suffers from color deprivation. there was talk about voluntary compliance, and let's make the assumption volunteered compliance is steeped in perceived fairness. the fact somebody pays complex love my, is a lot less in tax versus the common worker. you know the story. could become at this from a different angle and asked if tax reform and increased the min

we sea this across the irs. when people come to work at the agency, they want to stay because their love their work and the opportunity to provide service to the nation. another employee i want to mention is sitting here at the head table. you heard him introduced. bill pressman who has been with the irs for 40 years. a good example of people we often see at the irs who come into the agency and then develop careers eventually doing something very different than they did when they first started out. bill began by quote carrying the bag, which at the irs is shorthand for working in the field as a revenue officer. these are the people who actually collect past due taxes. bill's career path eventually led him into our communications area where he is a whiz now at putting technical tax information into plain english for taxpayers. he's scheduled to retire in june and i'm delighted to have the opportunity to thank him here and hon for him for his service to the irs and to the nation. [ applause ] angelo and bill are t

obviously, people are fearful of the irs. in fact, our recent polls have shown that fewer than one third of americans trust the irs, and that ultimately all comes down to leadership. n was supposed to be the man appointed by the president to clean up the agency and to institute reform and transparency, and starting right here with this committee, he certainly has not done, and i stand against this amendment. written. as things are written, it needs to a that way, and i yield back. chair: thank you. the gentlewoman from the virgin islands is now recognized. you, mr. chairman, and i want to give my support for the amendment because the facts are important, and being meticulous about them is what i think we are all about, and i think that the chairman, in giving the dates with which knew aboutr koskinen this that the chairman might be confusing what the irs new and his taking responsibility for the irs, as opposed to what he and i thinknew, that in the a norma's amount of questioning and hearings and evidence that has been prese

this appears to be an abuse of the irs. political persecution. by the irs. the irs knows how to get things done with their subpoena power. that's my mother-in-law calling. she has her own ring. [laughter] get this information. they show up all these different times trying to get information. to your knowledge either one of you as the irs or any agency been held accountable for the abuse of power that they used against this one citizen back in texas. not aware of any. the accusation against against the irs in their of the numerous ones. the abuses that have occurred has anyone in the irs been fired. >> no. he stands by all of his statements. the situation is dire it's bad and still available for targeting. nobody has gone to jail. we had a federal judge three months ago of the d circuit court judge in washington saying that the irs cannot be trusted. be familiar with that statement by federal judge. mr. farenthold: i get frustrated and sometimes depressed and angry. i don't like the way things are going in washington dc. we passed hundreds of bills just to se

what i've long advocated that the irs offer online account access to taxpayers, i believe the irs is wrong in assuming online accounts will substantially reduce taxpayer demand for telephone and face-to-face assistance for many reasons including that millions do not have internet access, millions with internet access to enough for comfortable trying to resolve important financial matters over the internet, particularly in the face of massive security breaches on online government systems. and many taxpayers are not cookie-cutter. required a degree of back and forth discussion that is better suited for conversation, at that taxpayers will insist upon, therefore it is critical the irs not develop future plans based on assumed cost savings that may not materialize. the irs likes to say it needs to provide the same type of service to financial institutions provide to their customers. the results of the most recent annual survey conducted by the board of governors of the federal reserve system show that come at a quote, while mobile banking users are utilizing technological platforms at a

, the same irs that targeted people, access to people in that geographic location, the irs knows where they're at and their cell number and cell information? how many times has the irs used that technology? >> i would have to come back with the exact number. i think it's about 37 times. >> 37 times. and in those 37 times do you know if the irs got a warrant to use that technology? >> in every instance we would have had some sort of court -- >> not what i asked. >> did you get a warrant? probable cause warrant? >> again, i would have to come back to you on that. >> can you get back to me? >> certainly. >> does the irs have a nondisclosure with the fbi, not disclosing that it's actually -- when you employed it and you supposedly grabbed somebody who's not paid their taxes or whoever you're trying to get, did you disclose to them that you used stingray technology to get them? >> disclose it to the fbi? >> no, do you have -- do you have an agreement with the fbi that says you will not disclose to the individual that you're using the technology to, i assume, get information from or maybe ge

, the same irs that rgt at thatted people, access to people in that geographic location the irs knows where they're at and their cell number and cell information? how many times has the irs used that technology? >> i would have to come back with the exact number. i think it's about 37 times. >> 37 times. and in those 37 times do you know if the irs got a warrant to use that technology? >> in every instance we would have had some sort of court -- >> not what i asked. >> did you get a warrant? probable cause warrant? >> again, i would have to come back to you on that. >> can you get back to me? >> certainly. >> does the irs have a nondisclosure with the fbi, not disclosing that it's -- so when you employed it and you supposedly grabbed somebody who has not paid their taxes or whoever you're trying to get, did you disclose to them that you used sting ray technology to get them? >> disclose it to the fbi? >> no, do you have -- do you have an agreement with the fbi that says you will not disclose to the individual that you're using the technology to i assume get information from or maybe g

irs has the pilot program under way. they need to evaluate whether or not that's going to be successful and meet the needs of the people who were providing the information. but communication here is really important. the other thing that we point out in our evaluation is there are monetary awards for whistleblowers. and so far the irs has only issued about 31 specific monetary awards. so they have to look at whether or not they're providing enough incentives for people. both in communication and to awards. >> thank you, mr. dodaro. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. russell, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, for all of our witnesses that are here today, we do appreciate what you do. i'm a big fan of our government counters and also our inspectors general and others that help us ferret out waste and have responsible government. mr. dodaro, the gao found that the commerce department's new innovative technologies manufacturing it

irs is behind the eight ball on that one. can you explain why the irs failed to better coordinate and share information between programs? >> well a lot of these programs grew up over time. so, for example, we -- >> i know but what is happening that you should have a constant evaluation and, you know, predication as an ongoing exercise and we haven't seen that. >> well, in this particular instance we had a series of referral programs that grew up in each individual operating division over a period of time. now should we have looked at that and addressed it earlier, i think we should have. the fact is that my view on this is the auditors were very helpful in terms of focusing our attention on this. and now that we focused attention on it, we're taking action. >> so we can expect some results here shortly? >> absolutely. >> mr. dodaro, as you may know, fraud within and throughout the va is rampant. with regards to unemployment benefits why doesn't the va use irs data to verify applicant self-reported earnings? >> i'm not sure. i

we have the irs, but what we want is the irs to be fair, and we want the irs to do its job of collectinges. these are organizations that pay taxes. one of the things that people really don't understand, when you talk about the taxes and organization -- all that means is that they don't pay taxes on the contributions they receive. myriad of other groups, they are not tax-deductible to the donor. they pay taxes on property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes. they just don't have to pay an income tax on money that comes in. now, is this a political ploy? well, sometimes we miss state philosophical difference for political. there was a scandal here and john koskinen testified multiple times to congress falsely. he falsely testified and he allowed, and presided over destruction of important evidence about the source of this scandal. that took place over the course of the year after he became the irs commissioner. and that is what the mps resolution is about. letterongress sent a when roger clemens, the new york yankees pitcher, testified -- when the democrats had control of congress, and testi

why do you say you're the irs in you're not the irs. tonight hank investigates. and becoming fast friends with boston legends. they were so down to earth. easy to talk to tom brady shares a sce his star power entourage with him. >> 7 news at 11 starts now. >> first at 11, new england catching a serious cold. right before the holiday. people outside bundling up with puffy jackets hats and gloves. it's start to feel like thanksgiving is couple of days away. and it might look like it too. with the potential for a few flakes thanksgiving morning let's check your forecast with chief meteorologist jeremy right now. we will hold on to clear sky overnight tonight. tomorrow features lots of sunshine. it's a great travel day tomorrow. it will be chilly. and a bit of breeze although i think we work into afternoon we will start to lose that breeze. here's your travel through new england. dry roads all over the place. but chilly the numbers should up near 50 degrees. but only in lower 40s in southern new england. 30s across northern new england. where the ski areas are going

irs has the pilot program under way. they need to evaluate whether or not that's going to be successful and meet the needs of the people who providing the information. but communication here is really important. the other thing that we point out in our evaluation is there are monetary awards for whistle blowers. and so far the irs has only issued about 31 specific monetary awards. so they have to look at whether or not they're providing enough incentives for people, both in communication and to awards. >> thank you, mr. dodaro. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman, the chair recognizes the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. russell, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, for all of our witnesses that are here today, we do appreciate what you do. i'm a big fan of our government counters and also our inspectors general and others that help us ferret out waste and have responsible government. mr. dodaro, the gao found that the commerce department's new technologies innovate i have been, or loan p

one issue, get rid of the irs.etying for you. >> the "cashin' in" gang getting ready to roll. dav eric what do you got? >> donald trump saying we should be self-sufficient, is he right or wrong? >>> and he's still refusing to stand for the national anthem. colin kaepernick. >> up here ia is investing your tax dollars, all kinds of james bond-like security firms. security firms. they say it's to help protect us my story is yours. security firms. they say it's to help protect us i am a mother... ...i'm a father, a son... ...a daughter. i am in recovery from a mental illness... ...a substance use disorder. with support from family and community, we are victorious. join the voices for recovery: our families, our stories, our recovery! for confidential information on mental and substance use disorders including prevention and treatment referral for you or someone you know, call 1-800-662-4357 brought to you by the u.s. department of health & human services. >>> if you take the top awe, you'll find a little red button. w

but we see this across the irs. when people come to work at the agency, they want to stay because they love their work, and the opportunity provides service to the nation. others employee i want to mention is sitting here at our head table, bill crissman who has been with the irs for 40 years, good example of people we often see at ther is who is come into the agency and then develop careers eventually doing something very different than they did when the first started out. bill began by, quote, carrying the bag, which at the irs is shorthand for working in the field as a revenue officer. these are the people who actually collect past, due taxes. bill's career path eventually led him into our communications area, where he is a wiz now at putting technical tax information into plain english and i'm delighted to honor him for his service to to ther is and is the -- too the irs and the nation. [applause] >> and they're two terrific public servants and very typical of our work force. without such dedicated employees the

the irs audited the sitting president of the united states. if you think something's weird about paying six grand in taxes on $800,000 in income, if you think there's something hingy of a president paying 8% in taxes on more than 3/4s of a million dollars in income, you're right that seems wrong and that the irs agrees and the irs audited the sitting president and they slammed nixon for having paid almost nothing over those three years. they told him what he owed was more like a half million dollars in taxes and the irs demanded that money and he agreed to pay it and the irs wiped his health in half. a very expensive exercise for that president while he was in the process of his presidency going up in flames. that was nixon '73. by '74 nixon was gone and ford became the president and in an effort to be more transparent and to reassure the people that the new president was a different guy than the old one had been, ford started the tradition of presidents and candidates for president releasing their taxes whether or not they were pressured to d

he irs approved a $290 billion boost to irs funding for this fiscal year. designated for improving taxpayer service, protecting against identity theft, and strengthening cyber security, all top priorities for the irs as well as for the country. this is the first time in six years the irs has received significant additional funding, and it is a step in the right direction. to illustrate how helpful the funding has been, we used a portion of it to higher a little over 1000 extra temporary employees to help improve our service on the phone. as a result, we are already seeing service improvements this season. the level of service on our 70%, and line is over the average for the entire filing season will probably be 60%, a vast improvement over the somewhat miserable level of service last year. once seasonal employees are gone, we can expect the number to drop significantly simpler because we do not have the running to keep them on longer, and our average for the year tol probably be in the 47% 50% range, which is still a significant improvement over last year.

one issue, get rid of the irs. that's the only thing i run on. >> i'm societying for you. >> the "cashin' in" gang getting ready to roll. dav eric what do you got? >> donald trump saying we should be self-sufficient, is he right or wrong? >>> and he's still refusing to stand for the national anthem. colin kaepernick. >> up here first, the cia is investing your tax dollars, all kinds of james bond-like security firms. they say it's to help protect us but some say it's phony capitalism. we debate. you decide -- coming up next. >>> the central investment agency. maybe. the >>> if you take the top awe, you'll find a little red button. whatever you do, don't touch it. >> why not? >> because you release the section of the roof and engage and fire the passenger ejector. >> i never joke about my work 007. >> i love that line. that was the fictional hue showing james bond the car in "goldfinger." the spy agency putting money in a venture capital company calls in-q-tell. half of the trustees reportedly have ties to companies

irs. and for the president who appointed you, not for this committee. the. the question we're called.whether there are high crimes or misdemeanors that warrant constitutional remedy of impeachment. that would be high crimes and misdemeanors you committed or not that people think your office or predecessors committed. we heard in the last hearing although high crimes and misdemeanors need not be limited to criminal acts the commissioner's critics need to show he acted with some deliberate bad faith. they have not done so. inspector general, department of justice, finance committee reached same conclusion. it is regretful since you're here but since you're here, i want to you ask, has the internal revenue service been funded adequately to perform its job of catching tax cheats, by catching tax cheats or the threat thereof gotten the revenues that are necessary to provide the services that government should be rendering? >> no. >> how much is the irs budget been cut recently? >> the irs budge

>> irs is calling me? is this for real? >> reporter: fraud is real. a new series of public service announcements warning americans of an age-old tax scam that's taking more and more new victims to the cleaners. criminals call american taxpayers pretending to be irs agents and demand phoney back taxes. often the carcinogen naturals threaten to call the police if the taxpayer hangs up the phone. >> it makes me angry. because i feel personally bad for the victims. then i feel angry that these criminals are using the irs as a means to scare people into paying them money. >> reporter: the inspector general for the irs says as many as 5,000 victims have paid as much as $26.5 million to the scam artists who can be located inside the united states or around the world. the scam began by targeting new immigrants to the united states and threatening deportation and other penalties. but the inspector general says it has since mutated and now it's targeting every demographic group. >> early if the scam, the callers had

. >>> irs imposters, people claiming to be calling from the irs. hank investigates how you can avoid the problem. >>> and then ahead at 5:30, plowing through, a judge makes a >>> and hit by hate, officials trying to figure out who sent a disturbing message to a harvard professor. >>> and we're updating breaking news. a hanover employee hit in the parking lot of the waltham super heart. police say the employee was gathering carriages when the person was hit. sky 7 over the scene on russell street. we will continue to follow this story and give you more details as we get them here. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. differently. that means incredibly fast 150 meg internet for the holidays. so in the 3.7 seconds it takes gary watson to beat the local sled jump record, fly, gary, fly. ...his friend can download 13 versions of the perfect song... ...his sister can live stream it... ...while his mom downloads how to set a dislocated

it looks like there is a problem with the management at the irs. i see my time has expired. >> the time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york for five minutes. >> thank you for your presence and for your service. the chief sponsor of the impeachment resolution that resulted in this hearing is republican representative john fleming from louisiana, zechariah? >> is my understanding that he is one of the proposers. and congressman fleming is currently a candidate for the united states senate, is that right? >> is my understanding. i'm learning from congress from gouty. >> are you aware that congressman fleming is currently running television ever size part of this campaign? and they claim that the head of the irs, that would be you, order 24000 e-mails you race? >> i am aware of that. >> but the facts have already been established i think that the emails were inadvertently wipes by two low-level employees comes that right? >> that is correct. >> these employees work the midnight shift, zechariah? >> yes. >> they work the midnig

tactics of the irs. just that you're exposing what they are also involved in sending letters to encourage the same behavior. so so they would say one thing into another. >> guest: i believe that there are actually the vast majority of americans just love the first amendment and cannot tolerate these examples. never do it themselves. they would come to the defense of anybody who was a target of those. i think this gets to the power structure. that is who is perpetrating this. the people were playing at the top. the elected officials, the elected democrats. i think i have lost sight of what actually matters and it is about winning. i thank you see that in some of the big groups that operate, the activist groups that operate out there. it's about winning at all costs. the reason i'm hopeful that is not the view felt by most americans is that for instance, as part part of that whole alec debate we're talking about, another thing that happened was senator durbin from illinois, even as these groups are attacki

being audited by the irs.during an audit? >> no. >> let me ask another question. would releasing the tax return during the audit in any way impact that pending audit of the return? >> the release itself within. the concern sometimes by taxpayers is when information is public there may be more information that will be discovered or provided. but the release itself. >> we understand that is a concern. does the irs sent a letter to a person informing him that he is being audited by the irs? >> yes. in other words affected tell people with the if you're not hearing from us we'll send you a letter. >> is or any law or regulation that prevents a person from publicly disclosing the letter from the irs that tells them they are being audited? >> there is no restriction by the irs. >> releasing a tax return as we have just provide transparency. it's been reported also in the front page of the washington post that the trump foundation spent more than a quarter of 1,000,000 dollars to settle lawsuits are filed against his