Sen. Chuck Grassley issued the following response to the administration's proposal unveiled today to reform the Internal Revenue Service.<P> <I>"The administration says IRS reform begins today. I say welcome aboard. It's better late than never. But the administration is wrong. IRS reform didn't begin today. It began in Congress long ago. And last year the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS conducted a thorough top-to-bottom review of the federal tax collection agency.<P> "The administration had an opportunity today to finally show some real leadership by joining bipartisan congressional efforts to reform the IRS. Unfortunately, the administration decided instead to side with Treasury Department officials, bent on preserving their empire, instead of the American taxpayer.<P> The administration's proposals sound good on the surface, but the reality is, when you look at the details, they are paper-thin. For example, it was the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS that first proposed the idea of a citizen's review board at the district level. The administration has taken this proposal ? opposed by the administration appointees on the Commission ? and completely stripped it down, giving no authority or powers to review and recommend the disciplining of IRS employees.<P> Earlier this year I said that Treasury Department officials couldn't find the IRS if they were standing at 11th and Constitution. Today's proposal by President Clinton shows that while he may now be able to find the IRS, I'm not convinced he knows what is going on inside. The president proposes a band-aid when surgery is needed.<P> Too many of the administration's proposals are vague with time lines for implementation far into the future. The administration says that in 1998, it will ban measures of assigning dollar-goals for employees. That practice was outlawed almost a decade ago with the first Taxpayers Bill of Rights. And taxpayers must wait two years for any hope of having written notices in plain language. I have listened to the IRS claim for 15 years that it is going to improve notices. This proposal appears to just extend the deadline.<P> This is half-hearted reform. Taxpayers aren't going to tolerate mere window dressing. They want a complete renovation. The Grassley-Kerrey bill would help with full, real and faster reform of the IRS."<P> An active member of the 17-member National Commission on Restructuring the IRS, Sen. Chuck Grassley also is the lead co-sponsor of S. 1096, the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1997 with Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska. A senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley participated in the congressional IRS oversight hearings earlier this month.<P> A leading advocate for American taxpayers, Grassley wrote the bipartisan Taxpayers Bill or Rights I (1988) and the Taxpayers Bill of Rights II (1996) with former Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas.