Who'll Run the IRS?

A Senate hearing Wednesday on proposed IRS reforms erupted into a heated debate over the role of career managers in the future governance of the agency.

G. Jerry Shaw, senior counsel of the Senior Executives Association, was testifying at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on a House-passed bill that would, among other changes, create an "oversight board" for the IRS. The National Treasury Employees Union would have a seat on the 11-member board, but not the SEA nor any other managers' organization.

"The IRS career executives unanimously believe that this would place them in an untenable situation in dealing with the union," Shaw told the Senators, explaining that unhappy union members might be able to take complaints about their supervisors directly to the board. He also objected to another provision requiring, in effect, that the union assent to any personnel reforms at IRS.

Sen. Robert Kerrey, D-Neb., who co-chaired the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS, whose report formed the basis of the legislation under discussion, reminded Shaw that NTEU would have only one of 11 seats on the new IRS board. He asked whether the IRS commissioner and deputy commissioner couldn't represent management on the board.

"No," Shaw said, insisting that front-line managers with operational responsibilities have a very different perspective on the agency. As the discussion became more heated, he said that "the system is totally out of balance," adding, "In effect, you are turning the agency over to the union."

A few moments later, as both Kerrey and Shaw tried to speak at the same time, the Senator called Shaw's opinion "a draconian, hyper-ventilated conclusion." The SEA official, in turn, said loudly that his organization's members "know they will be totally unable to manage" in the proposed IRS organization.

Ray Woolner, president of the Professional Managers Association, joined Shaw in expressing concerns that the bill would give the new board too big a role in agency operations. Woolner called inclusion of the NTEU president on the board "both unnecessary and ill-advised." But should Congress decide to do so, he said, a representative of IRS managers should have a seat on the board too.

NTEU president Robert M. Tobias generally endorsed the IRS bill. "One vote out of 11 does not a dictator make," he quipped. He said NTEU is "not interested in having veto power."