Tax Disclosure Buried in Spending Bill

Today, Congress wrapped up work on a $388 billion omnibus appropriations bill, but not without controversy. At the last minute, staffers for ranking member of the Budget Committee Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) found a provision in the bill that allows Appropriations Committee chairmen and their staff access to income tax returns without any privacy restrictions.

I turned on C-SPAN2 this afternoon to watch the goings on, and when this came up, it obviously took many Republican and Democratic Senators by surprise. Democrats balked at the idea of voting for the bill, and attempted to amend it by striking the offending language. Republicans objected, because that would mean the House of Representatives would have to approve the modified bill. Since the House has already passed the appropriations bill and recessed with their members heading home, there was pressure on the majority's side to avoid bringing them back.

Eventually, a procedural solution was developed whereby the House will fix the problem in accordance with a resolution passed by the Senate along with the appropriations bill. The question now becomes how did this big brother provision get into the bill in the first place? Since the bill came from the House side, there are probably a lot of questions being asked by Senators right now about this.

Both Wisconsin senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl voted no on the omnibus appropriations bill.