Here's the Tax Disclosure section verbatim!

[dsewell]

It took about 1 1/2 hours of downloading PDFs from the Congressional website and skimming through the appropriations bill language, but I found the offending passage giving the House and Senate Appropriations Committee chairs the right to read any—yes, any—tax return. (I'm sure Sen. Conrad read this aloud during tonight's Senate debate, but I tuned into C-SPAN after the fireworks had begun, while Sen. Byrd was denouncing the omnibus bill, so I decided to see if I could find the passage in question as a political exercise.)

Sec. 222. Hereafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein.

If you want to see this in context, download http://www.house.gov/rules/h4818divh.pdf (huge, 22MB or so) and go to page 105 of the PDF document.

We need to keep the pressure on to get a disclosure of the source of that section.

[havocmom]

1. Thank you for the hard work to dig through the muck for this nugget

they hid away so carefully.

[gristy]

2. Did the House pass this bill today?

A not too careful reading of an earlier thread leads me to believe this. Or maybe it was yesterday? Is the idea here to pressure our Senators to defeat their version of the bill? Assuming the Senate rejects similar language in their bill, is there a chance this part could get put back in when the House and Senate "reconcile" the two versions?

[democratreformed]

3. Yes, the house passed it today. It was not even finished until

12:30 a.m. this morning (I'm thinking that's the correct time they stated).

When I was watching the House portion today, there was lots of objection about the short time frame and not being able to read all that was in the bill.

My hubby came home for a while so I wasn't watching when it actually passed the house, but it did.

[Gin]

4. Maybe they knew this one would be found....and worse additions

would go un-noticed. This bill is huge...wonder what else is in there.

Did you hear Sen. Finestein (sp?) say it could be used against certain Attorney General's?

DeLay has his cockroach fingerprints all over this addition.

[gristy]

5. thanks, dude.

Ya done good. Emails have gone out.

[dsewell]

6. It was Rep. Istook of Oklahoma

According to the latest wire reports, he's the one who asked for this section.

[democratreformed]

7. Sen. Istook of Oklahoma - according to posters on the other thread

on this topic.