FederalDaily - October 6, 2006
IRS Fails to Safeguard Taxpayer Data, Report Says
Union leaders say a new report that concludes the IRS is not doing a good job protecting the privacy
of taxpayer data bolsters its claim that the agency should not turn over taxpayer records to private
collection agencies. The report—by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)—is
the latest in a series of reports highlighting internal IRS data security problems, said the National
Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). The report found the IRS is not complying with legislative privacy
requirements and is not ensuring that the privacy of taxpayer data is being monitored adequately. “Every
independent audit of IRS internal security practices has found ongoing security failures and gaps.
What further evidence do we need that taxpayer information is at serious risk?” asked NTEU President
Colleen Kelley on Oct. 4. “The IRS should be required to get its own house in order and not only
meet, but exceed, the privacy standards.” To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=975
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Bush Signs DHS Funding Measure
President Bush signed the FY 2007 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which includes
money for more border agents and beefed-up port security measures. The bill, HR 5441, has a spending
ceiling which exceeds Bush’s request by about $2.7 billion, or 8 percent. The bill, signed Oct.
4, includes funding for 1,500 new border patrol agents and 6,700 detention beds, as well as $1.2 billion
for border fencing, vehicle barriers and related technology. It also contains a $1 billion increase
for the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program, and for 450 new officers for cargo inspection and trade
operations. The funding will allow the Coast Guard to expand the Container Security Initiative program
to 58 foreign seaports. Overall, the bill would provide $9.3 billion for Customs and Border Protection,
nearly $1.5 billion more than the administration’s request. Under the bill, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency would get an overhaul, keeping it under the DHS umbrella. To see the White House
press release, go to: www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061004-2.html
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DOI Workers Visiting Gambling, Sex Sites
A new report says Department of the Interior (DOI) employees are spending thousands of hours a week
visiting shopping, sex and gambling Web sites. The report, made public on Oct. 4, looked at a week’s
worth of DOI computer use and turned up more than a million log entries in which some 7,700 employees
visited game and auction sites. More than 4,700 log entries were made to sexually explicit and gambling
Web sites. The findings are “egregious” and “alarming,” the department's inspector
general, Earl Devaney, wrote in the report. “Computer users at the department have continued
to access sexually explicit and gambling Web sites due to the lack of consistency in department controls
over Internet use,” he wrote. Furthermore, the report noted, a number of computers accessed sexually
explicit Web sites for 30 minutes to an hour. Department officials say they are taking action to cut
back on abuses among the agency’s almost 80,000 employees with Internet access. To see the report,
go to: http://www.doioig.gov/upload/InternetUsage1.txt.
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