Fedweek

Declaring that “it seems patently unfair to hold those who write the tax laws to a lesser standard than those who must enforce them,” the president of the National Treasury Employees Union is urging Congress to repeal a law requiring an IRS employee to be fired, among other reasons, for failure to file a tax return on or before the due date. Colleen M. Kelley told the Senate that recent revelations that some members of Congress and their staffs have “substantial tax delinquencies” shows there is disparate treatment between IRS workers and members of Congress and their staffs, who are not subject to mandatory firings for the same abuses. She believes that there should be no mandatory firing and that employees should be allowed to present mitigating evidence to fight for their jobs.