AP: Republicans red-faced over tax-disclosure gaffe [View All]

Lawmakers pledge to repeal law granting them access to returns
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:51 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2004

WASHINGTON - Congress debated legislation Saturday giving two committee chairman and their assistants access to income tax returns without regard to privacy protections, but not before red-faced Republicans said it was all a mistake and would be swiftly repealed.

“This is a serious situation,” said Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. He said he was unaware of the provision, inserted into a 3,300-page spending bill covering most federal agencies and programs.

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“We weren’t born yesterday, we didn’t come down with the first snow,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. “This isn’t poorly thought out, this was very deliberately thought out and it was done in the dead of night.”

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Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the measure will “bring us back to the doorstep to the days of President Nixon, President Truman and other dark days in our history when taxpayer information was used against political enemies.”

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6541484/

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