Washington, DC – Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Charles Boustany, Jr., M.D. (R-LA) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed three bills authored by Congressman Boustany to limit the authority of the IRS in the wake of ongoing investigations into the agency’s targeting of conservative organizations.  The three House-passed bills are:

• H.R. 5418: To prohibit officers and employees of the Internal Revenue Service from using personal email accounts to conduct official business.

• H.R. 5419: To provide tax-exempt groups the right to an administrative appeal relating to adverse determinations of tax-exempt status.

• H.R. 5420: To permit the release of certain information to victims regarding the status of investigations into leaks of their personal taxpayer information.

Boustany said: “The American people demand a higher ethical standard from public servants in our government.  As our investigation continues to expose the rot at the core of the IRS’s culture, we must put safeguards in place to ensure this breach of the public trust is never repeated.  Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant.’  My bills bring the operations of the IRS into the sunlight of public scrutiny, providing greater accountability for future generations of Americans.”

###