{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-drills-irs-double-standard", "Tipton Drills into IRS Double Standard", "2013-07-17", "2013", "2013-07", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON\u2014Today, during a House Small Business Committee hearing Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) questioned acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel on the agency\u2019s double standard with regard to its treatment of American taxpayers.\nTipton pressed the Commissioner on the recent IG report that stated the IRS wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on lavish conferences and costly conference videos. Werfel assured that since, \u201cstrong, robust procedures were put in place to constrain both conference spending and any spending on extraneous cost on videos.\u201d\n\u201c\u2026What the American people\u2019s frustration and my frustration is that we look at the IRS just saying, \u2018hey we\u2019re going to correct the problem, we\u2019re sorry, it won\u2019t happen again, and then move on down the road,\u201d said Tipton. \u201cDo you apply those same standards to American taxpayers?\u201d\nWerfel responded that he was \u201cnot excusing the behavior.\u201d\nWatch their full exchange here.\nTipton also pressed Werfel on the IRS expectation that American taxpayers have a complete understanding of the tax code that the Agency doesn\u2019t even have.\nTIPTON: \u201cHow many pages are there in the tax code? 70,000 plus?\u201d\nWERFEL: \u201cIt\u2019s a very high number.\nTIPTON: \u201cIf I call up the IRS today, wanting to be able to pay my taxes, to do it lawfully, will whoever answers that phone guarantee me that their answer is correct?\nWERFEL: \u201cThat\u2019s not the way the process works.\u201d\nTIPTON: \u201cThat\u2019s not the way the process works\u2026 So the IRS can\u2019t figure it out, the IRS can\u2019t guarantee us that they understand the policies that are in place, and yet we\u2019re trying to tell the American people that you must obey the law. Doesn\u2019t this really call for legitimate tax reform to get a flatter, fairer and simpler tax code?\u201d\nWERFEL: \u201c\u2026As a general principle, the IRS administers whatever law Congress passes and we rely on the Treasury Department to articulate-\u201d\nTIPTON: \u201cThat\u2019s not completely true though, is it? ...Don\u2019t you issue rules and regulations that are not approved by Congress, and it\u2019s your assumption they meet the legislative directive? But you don\u2019t come back and ask us if it meets the legislative directive.\u201d\n\u00a0\n#\u00a0 #\u00a0 #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-drills-irs-double-standard"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7711537182331085, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}