Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) led 15 of their Democratic Senate colleagues in a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Acting Commissioner Melanie Krause, IRS Acting Chief Counsel Andrew De Mello, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem demanding answers on reports that DHS and the “Department of Government Efficiency” have illegally requested sensitive taxpayer information from the IRS. The Senators also expressed concern at the abrupt replacement of previous Acting Chief Counsel William Paul.
“We write about alarming reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked for unprecedented access to private taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” wrote the Senators. “Elon Musk and his associates at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have also reportedly sought to cross-reference taxpayer data with sensitive personal data held by other agencies that provide public benefits.”
According to a Washington Post report, DHS officials requested the IRS turn over home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of over 700,000 people in an apparent attempt to weaponize the tax system against those suspected of being undocumented immigrants. This unlawful move would target people paying taxes and contributing to American communities and is the latest attempt from the Trump Administration to target immigrant communities. It was also reported that DOGE sought access to sensitive personal tax records, the sharing of which would be illegal.
“In addition to violating tax privacy laws, the wholesale sharing of tax return information with DHS or DOGE, as described in the press, would also penalize individuals for complying with federal tax law and undermine the IRS’s core mission of tax collection by reducing voluntary tax compliance,” continued the Senators. “According to official government data, millions of taxpayers who do not have a social security number file their taxes with the IRS each year using an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), including many undocumented individuals. Such voluntary tax compliance depends on trust that the IRS will keep taxpayer data confidential.”
Additional signatories to the letter include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Read the full letter here.
Senator Cortez Masto has pushed multiple Departments under the Trump Administration for detailed, public information regarding the impacts of President Trump’s federal funding freeze, hiring freeze, and terminations on Nevada – including to the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, and General Services Administration.
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