Rep. Istook says it’s all a big misunderstanding (from the Times)
Representative Ernest Istook, Republican of Oklahoma, who was responsible for the insertion of the tax provision in the 3,000-page, $388 billion legislation that provides financing for most of the government, issued a statement on Sunday saying that the language had actually been drafted by the Internal Revenue Service and that “nobody’s privacy was ever jeopardized.” Mr. Istook is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that has authority over the I.R.S. budget.
John D. Scofield, the spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, said that the purpose of the provision was to allow investigators for the top lawmakers responsible for financing the I.R.S. to have access to that agency’s offices around the country and tax records so they could examine how the money was being spent. There was never any desire to look at anyone’s tax returns, he said.
Mr. Scofield said the only purpose of the provision was to allow investigators to have access to revenue service offices. He said the authority would be similar to that allowed senior members and staff assistants of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee, the panels with primary jurisdiction over the activities of the revenue service.
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Mr. Scofield, the spokesman for the House committee, called the entire matter “a tempest in a teapot” and said Mr. Istook and his colleagues had no objection to the removal of the authority.
“We don’t really care,” Mr. Scofield said Sunday in an interview. “It was an honest attempt to do oversight. If they want to take it out, fine.”
Mr. Scofield said he found it strange that senators felt they were taken by surprise. He noted that the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative Bill Young, Republican of Florida, had discussed it briefly on the House floor, and that the language had been available since Thursday for Senate staff members to read.
Similar, just without any privacy <$NoAd$>laws applying.
