Fire-rehire policy at IRS

Orange County Register: According to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, of the 7,168 employees rehired by the Internal Revenue Service from Jan. 1, 2010, to Sept. 30, 2013, 824 had prior employment issues. Some were rather serious issues, including several cases of fraud.

There were “141 former employees with prior substantiated tax issues, including five who the IRS had found had willfully failed to file their federal tax returns,” the report revealed. “Other substantiated issues from previous IRS employment included unauthorized access to taxpayer information, leave abuse, falsification of official forms, unacceptable performance, misuse of IRS property and off-duty misconduct.”

“These individuals got fired for a reason,” Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., wrote in a column for the Daily Caller. “The practice of routinely giving these bad apples a second chance is an insult to every hardworking or job-seeking person in this country. We must end it.” To that end, Sen. Burr has introduced the Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act of 2016, which would prohibit the agency from rehiring fired employees.

It is sad that such a commonsense measure is needed, but it should be expanded to the entire government.