FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Release #105-309
May 1, 1998

ROTH FOCUSES ON SOLUTIONS IN FINAL DAY OF IRS HEARINGS
Commissioner Rossotti Testifies

WASHINGTON -- The following is the opening statement of Senate Finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth, Jr. at the fourth and final day of the Committee's IRS oversight hearings:

"Let me begin by welcoming Commissioner Charles Rossotti. We appreciate your appearance today, as well as the leadership and tremendous effort at reform that you have already initiated within the Internal Revenue Service.

"I am pleased with the Seven-Step plan announced this week for the agency, including your support for the creation of a new Inspector General for Tax Administration. As I have commented before, I wholeheartedly approve of the appointment of William Webster, whose task it is to report back on the proper role of the Criminal Investigative Division.

"The purpose of the hearings in September and this week is to uncover problems in the IRS that require either legislative or management changes. Consequently, last Friday when Commissioner Rossotti and I met, we agreed that the cause of IRS reform would best be served by focusing on solutions and not adjudications of the specific problems we've heard during the course of our oversight.

"I suggest that these matters be referred to the General Accounting Office, in the short-term, and thereafter be assigned for further investigation by the new Inspector General for Tax Administration, which is contained in the legislation the Senate is expected to act on next week. Today we will focus on solutions to the serious concerns our oversight has raised, rather than address specific cases. This is the best use of our time and will be most productive to the accomplishment of our objectives.

"There is a second purpose to these oversight hearings. And that is to strengthen the hand of the Commissioner in dealing with the IRS bureaucracy -- a bureaucracy that has been too long outside the control of any Commissioner.

"Oversight is a painful process. It means focusing on the things that are wrong. It means seeing things you wouldn't wish to see and hearing things you'd prefer not to hear. But once that process is underway real change becomes possible. I think that all of us have a better understanding of the problems with the IRS than we did only nine months ago.

"Commissioner Rossotti, you have one of the toughest jobs in Washington. This committee wants you to be successful and we welcome you here today."

# # #