Clinton to Seek Citizen Panels to Field Complaints About IRS
President Clinton will propose the creation of an independent Citizen’s Review Panel to field complaints from taxpayers about the Internal Revenue Service, a senior Clinton administration official said Thursday.
The proposal, which Clinton hopes to present to Congress as early as next week, will call for the establishment of a watchdog entity that includes a national review board and 33 local review boards assigned to monitor the actions of each IRS district office.
The proposal comes a week after congressional hearings spotlighted abuses by IRS officials and energized a contest between the administration and many members of Congress over reform proposals for the tax collection agency.
The panels would be modeled on citizen review boards set up in many cities to act as a check on local police departments.
Administration officials are still considering how members of the IRS review panels would be selected and whether to recommend that the entities have authority to discipline IRS agents.
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