john koskinen joins me now. mr. inen, thank you for being with us. >> delighted to be here. >> woodruff: what is it goingt to take to retore store the confidence of the american people in the i.r.s.?? >> first we have to demonstratet it's a fair system. if you hear from us, it's because of something in your return, not because of who you voted for, what party you belong to or what church you go to. also, our systems are secure. the problem has been that criminals organized around the world have a vast amount of personal information available to them and they are increasingly successful at masquerading as taxpayers and when they've gotten into our information it's because they've stolen the information somewhere else and could pretend effectively they were the taxpayer. >> woodruff: and when members of timent r.s. and the country come to you and say, why aren't you preventing this kind of thing, is it not doable? >> no, we are continuing to increase the levels of security, the authentication we have from taxpayers bef

the first on -- we witnessed the first one, john koskinen, who has an impeccable background. be jayond witness will russell george, from the , inspector general for the tax administration. esther george was confirmed to his position in 2004. inor to that, he served community service. he began his career as a prosecutor in new york following which he served as assistant general counsel and the counsel's office in the white ande office of management budget. mr. george has also served as the associate director for policy in the office of national service, after which she moved to the private sector, when he .racticed law then, in 1995, mr. george joined the committee on government reform and oversight. mr. george received his bachelor of arts degree from howard university, and a masters from harvard school of law. he will be joined by michael mckinney. mr. mckinney is responsible for providing audit oversights related to the preparation and processing of tax returns, and the you issue in of refunds to taxpayers. finally, we welcome back controller jane dodaro -- gene doraro. he

again, waiting for the start of testimony from irs commissioner john koskinen this morning. he'll be talking about cybersecurity and how the irs protects the information of taxpayers. this is taking place before the senate finance committee. just a couple moments away. while we wait for this to get started, elsewhere on capitol hill today, visits continue for supreme court justice nominee merrick garland. he's meeting with 14 senators today, seven democrats, six republicans and one independent. so far, he has had meetings with 21 senators, 18 democrats, 3 republicans. one-on-one meetings with senators to take place in their offices today. senate judiciary committee chair chuck grassley was up first and they started at about the 7:45 today. there was no coverage of that meeting. afterward, senator grassley tweeted out, had pleasant breakfast with judge garland this morning. explained why the senate won't be moving forward with his nomination. the next president will decide after the people have a voice. other meetings set for today include senator murkowski of alaska. it's se

. >>> john koskinen says public compliance rates could decline. commissioner koskinen spoke at the national press club here in waurnds where he talked about irs's mission to combat fraud and scams impacting taxpayers. this is about an hour. [ applause ] >> welcome to tax season. americans now have three weeks, 10 hours and 58 minutes to get their federal returns filed. but who's counting. for our seeker every day is tax day. john kos din then is the commissioner of the irs. it seems that every tax season generates a headline or two. this year they include the irs's concerns about scammers who telephone or e-mail taxpayers asking for identifying information. something koskinen says the irs would never do. and a presidential nominee has claimed the irs has audited his returns for 12 years because he is quote a christian. last year a resolution for koskinen's impeachment was introduced to the house. the judiciary committee has taken no action on the resolution and the treasury secretary has vigorously defended koskinen. our guest is the 48th irs comm

commissioner john koskinen being on capitol hill this week to talk about his agency and tax day. what are his views about the i.r.s. and what are you hearing about the latest on calls by house republicans for him to resign? >> so the i.r.s. commissioner john koskinen spoke at the house ways and means committee -- at a subcommittee hearing yesterday and he said that the end of the tax filing season has gone pretty smoothly. the i.r.s. did receive a slight funding boost this year for customer service and that has helped improve the level of service on telephone lines this year. they have received around $130 million. when it comes to calls to impeach the i.r.s. commissioner, a group of house republicans took to the floor to give speeches calling for koskinen's impeachment. on thursday they were criticizing him for what they consider kind of improprieties relating to how he handled the investigation into the -- into the political targeting scandal involving lois lerner. you know, congressman peter roskam, who is on the ways and means committee, said earlier the day on thursday that

we have heard from our first witness, john koskinen, who has a tremendous reputation and background for the work that he is doing. our second witness will be jay russell george, from the treasury, inspector general for the tax administration. mr. george was confirmed to his position in 2004. prior to that, he served in community service. he began his career as a prosecutor in new york following which he served as assistant general counsel and the counsel's office in the white house office of management and budget. mr. george has also served as the associate director for policy in the office of national service, after which she moved to the private sector, when he practiced law. then, in 1995, mr. george joined the committee on government reform and oversight. mr. george received his bachelor of arts degree from howard university, and a masters from -- and his law degree from harvard school of law. he will be joined by michael mckinney. mr. mckinney is responsible for providing audit oversights related to the preparation and processing of tax returns, and the you issue in of refunds to t

we heard from john koskinen about the complexity of the cyber program at irs.g to hack into thestax collection data to get sensitive data or hard-earned tax refund. here is the chairman koskinen moments ago. >> protecting citizen and taxpayer date is top priority for the u.s. we work continuously to protect our main computer systems for sigher attacks and to safeguard taxpayer information stored in our databases. the systems with stand more than one million malicious attempts to access them each day. reporter: koskinen said the challenge is keeping criminals both home and abroad out of the irs computer systems while allowing honest taxpayers in and reassuring them systems are safe. the government accountability office made 45 recommendations for how the irs can tighten things up, bill? >> that is mandatory. thank you, mike emanuel. watching hearing on the hill. thanks, mike. martha: brand new numbers coming out of new york, one week before voters head to the polls in one of the most important primaries seen in decades. could the empire state be the tipping poin

and at the same time, irs commissioner john koskinen joins representatives from the treasury department and government accountability office to testify on what's being done to protect taxpayer information from cyber net. that hearing -- cyber theft. that hearing is being held by the senate finance committee. live coverage on c-span3. >>> next, federal reserve chair janet yellen joins three of her predecessors for a discussion on monetary policy and decision making by the fed. the other speakers are ben bernanke, alan greenspan and paul volcker. this was at the international house of new york. it's an hour and 15 minutes. [applause] >> well, welcome, everybody. i'm the dude from the video. [laughter] i'm also the president and ceo of international house. i want to thank you so much for this historic occasion. we are very, very excited this evening to have what we call the fabulous four fed chairs. and this evening is going to be spectacular for a variety of

. >> the irs commissioner, john koskinen, acknowledges the responsibility to serve all taxpayers including those who prefer personal over digital interaction. i guess i will ask this question to both of you. is there anything that you would have, that you have not seen in this plan that should have been included to improve taxpayers services? >> well, my, again my disagreement with the irs is that, we all agree an online account is vitally important. my disagreement is that the online account is not going to substitute for inperson, or phone assistance, that personal contact. it will supplement it. as i said in my testimony the federal reserve has borne that out in its surveys over the last five years, that people who are digital, mobile banking users, visit their branches on average three times in the month before the survey, by 87%. it is extraordinary percentage. people want multiple choices and they will use the online account. they will also use the phones. and they will also do face-to-face and we should provide that to them and i don't see that in the plan. >> mr. buttonow? >> i agr

committee issued a subpoena to another john who was then and still the commissioner of the i.r.s., john koskinen. they demanded that he provide under subpoena by the force of law all the documents relating to lois lerner and the targeting of conservative groups by the i.r.s. however, instead of responding to that subpoena, the i.r.s. destroyed over 24,000 of those documents. but yet today mr. koskinen is still the commissioner of the i.r.s. there are two types of enforcement of laws in this nation, one for the citizen and one for the government official. you see, the sarbanes-oxley catch-all that's been used to successfully prosecute for destruction of cars and bodies as well as documents and evidence excludes government agencies. the american people deserve justice, but we do have one tool and that is the tool of this congress to impeach those who violate the trust of the american citizen. mr. speaker, i have co-sponsored with the chairman of the house oversight and government reform committee house resolution 494 which would bring the commissioner of the i.r.s. before this body on charges of i

. >>> irs commissioner john koskinen is one of six people expected to testify. we'll keep you post.ch. >>> brian adams is now the latest music star to get political over laws opponents are calling anti-gay. canceling a concert in mississippi over its religious liberty bill, issuing a statement saying, "i cannot in good conscience perform in mississippi where certain people are being denied their civil rights due to their sexual orientation." that coming on the heels of bruce springsteen doing the same. are these celebrities, are they getting it wrong? here for a fair and balanced debate is tammie bruce, radio talk show host, and tamera holder, attorney. both fox news contributors. great to see you ladies. i'll start with you, what was your reaction when you learn good the celebrities canceling concerts? >> it argument that civil rights are being violated is untrue. as a gay woman, gay civil rights movement is important. it was a movement about being left alone. it was about not being punished for who we are. that's what seems to be happening here. that you've got both bills certainl