{"id":5265,"date":"2022-08-25T02:22:58","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T20:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/?p=5265"},"modified":"2022-08-25T02:22:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T20:22:58","slug":"irs-orders-massive-security-review-amid-threats-over-hiring-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/photonews\/2022\/08\/25\/news\/5265\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS orders massive security review amid threats over hiring spree"},"content":{"rendered":"
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IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig announced the \u201ccomprehensive review of existing safety and security measures\u201d in a memo Tuesday to his 78,600 employees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON, Broadcasting news corporation : The Internal Revenue Service is undertaking its biggest security review in more than 25 years, blaming an alarming rise in threats and \u201cmisinformation\u201d over its approved massive hiring spree. \u201cWe are conducting a comprehensive review of existing safety and security measures,\u201d IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a memo to his 78,600 employees on Tuesday. \u201cThis includes conducting risk assessments based on data-driven decisions given the current environment and monitoring perimeter security, designations of restricted areas, exterior lighting, security around entrances to our facilities and other various protections.\u201d The major security review is the first of its kind since 1995, when 168 people were killed in Timothy McVeigh\u2019s bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Rettig told the Washington Post. It follows the furious backlash to President Biden\u2019s new tax, climate and drugs package that gives $80 billion to the IRS to beef up enforcement. Rettig\u2019s letter blamed the backlash on \u201can abundance of misinformation and false social media postings, some of them with threats directed at the IRS and its employees.\u201d Those raising alarm over the agency\u2019s plans include high-ranking Republicans, such as House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who said the new hires were to help the government \u201csnoop around\u201d in bank accounts and \u201cshake you down for every last cent.\u201d Florida Sen. Rick Scott also sent an August 16 open letter to Americans calling on them not to take any new IRS positions. \u201cThe IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS\u2019s words, willing, to kill them,\u201d he said in the letter. Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump\u2019s White House physician who is now the Republican candidate for a Texas congressional seat, tweeted last week that \u201cthe IRS is recruiting an army of 87,000 SPECIAL AGENTS trained to use \u2018DEADLY FORCE\u2019. \u201cAnd trust me, they won\u2019t be going after the billionaires. They will shakedown middle-class Americans for EVERY cent they have!\u201d Luis Miguel, a Republican Florida state House candidate, was banned from Twitter after saying he wanted to allow Floridians to \u201cbe able to shoot FBI, IRS, ATF, and all other federal troops on sight.\u201d
\nThe IRS commissioner told the Washington Post that the security review is needed because his \u201cworkforce is concerned about their safety.\u201d \u201cWe see what\u2019s out there in terms of social media,\u201d Rettig said. \u201cThe comments being made are extremely disrespectful to the agency, to the employees and to the country.\u201d Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said members who are of retirement age have expressed a greater desire to retire due to the threats. More than half of the IRS\u2019 enforcement workforce of 80,000 is retirement eligible. Several workers have said the hostility reminded them of the 2010 suicide attack in Austin, Texas, by Andrew Joseph Stack III, who crashed a single-engine plane into the Echelon office building, killing himself and IRS manager Vernon Hunter. \u201cThe rhetoric we\u2019re hearing now is dangerous,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cIt\u2019s putting these patriotic Americans at risk.\u201d NEWS COLLECTED FROM NEW YORK POST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Broadcasting news corporation : The Internal Revenue Service is undertaking its biggest security review in more than 25 years, blaming an alarming rise in threats and \u201cmisinformation\u201d over its approved massive hiring spree. \u201cWe are conducting a comprehensive review of existing safety and security measures,\u201d IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a memo to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5267,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5265\/revisions\/5267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}