Preventing IRS Employees From Using Personal Email Accounts For Business (H.R. 5418)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is H.R. 5418?
(Updated July 18, 2017)
This bill would prohibit officers & employees of the IRS from using personal email accounts to conduct official government business.
Enacting this legislation would make it easier to investigate the IRS’ activities, as its workers couldn’t attempt to subvert the Oversight Committee or Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by using personal email accounts.
Argument in favor
Allowing the use of personal email accounts for government business employees would make oversight impossible, and the IRS has already flagrantly disregarded federal records laws.
Argument opposed
It’s already illegal for government employees to do official business on a personal email account. In cases of extreme wrongdoing, a subpoena can be issued for a federal employee’s personal email.
Impact
IRS employees, the IRS, and people making Freedom of Information Act requests.
Cost of H.R. 5418
A CBO cost estimate is unavailable at this time.
Additional Info
Of Note:
When federal employees use a personal email for official business, it is a violation of the Federal Records Act. Federal employees are required to use their official government email for official business, so the government’s archiving systems will log the correspondence. This is done so that digital records exist if the need arises for an investigation or to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.Media:
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