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Floor Speech
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, in a few minutes, the Senate will vote on Danny Werfel's nomination to be the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
Mr. Werfel told the Finance Committee that he will make his priorities those of delivering fairness and building trust.
We know that he is going to do just that because he has done it before. President Obama asked Mr. Werfel, during a very challenging time, to serve as Acting Commissioner in 2013. Then, the Internal Revenue Service was under intense scrutiny for its sloppy reviews of tax-exempt organizations and their political activities. Mr. Werfel did his job in a way that improved trust in the Internal Revenue Service.
He worked with both sides of the Senate Finance Committee. Our investigation found that both left-leaning and right-leaning groups were affected. The late Senator Orrin Hatch, a friend to many in this Chamber, told me on a number of occasions how much he appreciated Danny Werfel's professionalism and his open door for all sides.
It is time to rebalance the American system of tax enforcement. Audits today, too often, are a burden that fall heavily on working families--on nurses and firefighters and teachers and the middle class. It is far too easy for the very wealthy and the multinational corporations, which have armies of tax lawyers and accountants, to get away with cheating and breaking the law. That is what the Democrats sought to address in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Now, I understand that not everybody in the Chamber shares those priorities. However, Mr. Werfel--and I will close with this--has committed to the Finance Committee that he is going to work with both sides of the aisle and bring transparency to the job. That includes how the IRS will spend funding to improve taxpayer services, upgrade information technology, and crack down on those wealthy tax cheats. He is going to protect confidential taxpayer data. That is an enormous priority for both sides. I think I am about as big a privacy hawk as there is here in this body, and it is certainly a priority of mine.
Danny Werfel is a highly qualified nominee. He has agreed to take on one of the toughest and most scrutinized jobs in public service. I urge my colleagues to now support Danny Werfel's nomination to head the Internal Revenue Service.
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