A citizen oversight board authorized last year to help make the IRS more sensitive to taxpayers should have been up and running during this year's tax filing season, but it does not exist yet.
The White House is four months late in nominating six members, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
"There's a lot of things that have to be done to make the IRS a better agency," Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., said. "Now, it's sort of a headless operation. We'll notice how much this delay has hurt us when the board is appointed."
Last year's IRS reform law created a nine-member panel with the power to review agency operations. The law provided the panel access to some private tax documents in its work.
The panel also will oversee management of the agency, recommend future candidates to run the IRS, and advise the president when it feels an incumbent commissioner should be removed.
Three board members are permanent: the Treasury secretary, the IRS commissioner and a representative of the National Treasury Employees Union. The law required President Clinton to submit to the Senate the six citizen nominees by Jan. 22.
But, as of Tuesday, that had not happened.
Some members of Congress wondered if the delay is being caused by political pressure from White House friends seeking one of the panel's five-year terms. The board is supposed to include members with some tax and management expertise.
"They ought to have the stamina to withstand that pressure," said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who co-chaired an IRS restructuring commission. "They ought to be able to pick the experts, not politicians."
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