The Republican House next week plans to take up three IRS-related bills, including one that would prevent all IRS officials from using their personal email while at work.
The issue has come up in the GOP investigation of former IRS employee Lois Lerner and her role in the IRS targeting scandal. Not only has the IRS said it lost more than two years' worth of Lerner's emails, but it has become clear that Lerner used her personal email for work purposes.
Former IRS official Lois Lerner used her personal email for IRS business, an issue that has impeded the GOP's investigation of the IRS targeting scandal. House Republicans are hoping to stop that practice in the future. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)
The legislation from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) is just one simple line prohibiting this practice.
"No officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service may use a personal email account to conduct any official business of the government," the bill reads.
Republicans are calling up the bill under a procedure usually reserved for non-controversial bills. It's a quicker process, but one that will require a two-thirds majority vote to pass — that requirements means a few dozen Democratic votes will be needed.
GOP leaders will try to pass two other IRS bills from Boustany next week. One would create a new right to appeal adverse decisions on whether tax-exempt status is granted to non-profit groups. The targeting scandal involved efforts by the IRS to significantly delay tax-exempt decisions for conservative groups.
The other would require the IRS to disclose whether it has initiated certain investigations against taxpayers.
