Dear Mr. President:
I want to express my concern for American taxpayers’ privacy in light of reports that your administration secretly has monitored millions of confidential financial transactions for almost five years. The New York Times, the Washington Post and other papers have reported that investigators are using a vast international database to examine banking transactions involving thousands of Americans. Administration officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions.
Coming on the heels of previous reports that the National Security Agency has eavesdropped without warrants on telephone conversations of thousands of Americans, I have concerns about the growing scope of these secret investigations. While I understand the need to find and prosecute suspected terrorists in the interest of national security, I have a growing concern that investigators might feel compelled to sift - without warrants - through vast amounts of financial information protected by the Internal Revenue Service.
The integrity of our voluntary self-assessment tax system depends on the government’s commitment to protect sensitive financial information provided by taxpayers to the IRS. Can you assure me that the U.S. Department of Treasury, which reportedly used its powers of administrative subpoena to compel bank records to be opened, is not using the same tactic to secretly open databases of Americans’ sensitive tax records? American taxpayers deserve to know whether their government is ignoring the rule of law to mine tax information protected from disclosure under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Sincerely yours,
Max Baucus Ranking Member
cc: The Honorable John W. Snow The Honorable Mark W. Everson
