House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) has sent a letter* to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking why federal contracting rules have been changed such that they would "exempt overseas contracts from a requirement that the contractor detect and prevent fraud and report it to the government." AP: The United States has spent more than $102 billion over the last five years to help rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. In that time, the Justice Department has uncovered at least $14 million in contract bribes in those two nations alone.

Following the flurry of the fourty-four budget resolution amendment roll call votes last week, this much is clear: repeal of the estate tax is now a non-starter in Congress. In years past, the budget resolution vote-a-rama has been an annual rite of repeal for the tax. But unless an amendment on it comes up when the resolution comes out of conference and hits the floor next month, 2008 may well be the first year since the current estate tax law was enacted in 2001 that full repeal of the tax has not even so much as come up for a vote in Congress. That's progress.

About 1.3 million American are owed an average of $1,000 each by the IRS for unclaimed refunds on their 2004 federal income tax returns, the IRS announced yesterday. To get the refund, taxpayers need to file 2007 returns, giving them another eason to do so, even if they earned no taxable income in calendar 2007. Doing so also qualifies them for a stimulus package rebate check (see our blog on rebate resources).

Tom Shoop, blogging over at FedBlog, made an excellent point about the NY Times coverage last Friday of an overlooked hearing in the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee. The Times headline continues to blacken the already quite black eye the IRS had developed over the private tax collection program: Taxpayer Advocate Says Outsourcing at I.R.S. Is Inept. Let's hope Tom is correct that this type of mainstream attention will signal the beginning of the end of the wasteful and dangerous program. hat tip: More Bad Press for IRS Outsourcing