{"articles":[{"id":1198,"title":"The Daily Countable: The IRS is Doing... What?!","html_content":"

by Causes | 10.4.17

Good Wednesday morning, friends, from all of Countable and from me, Andrea Seabrook, Managing Editor. Big, important stories to watch and talk to your Reps about today:

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The House passed this bill yesterday to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Watch for signs from the Senate for what's next.
AT&T is asking The Supreme Court to strike-down net neutrality rules. More on that here.
And our crack-team of legislative researchers (one guy named Eric) is rounding-up all the gun related legislation that's been introduced in Congress in the last two days. (Eric is awesome.) Get that here.

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\r\nNow. Remember Equifax? One of the big 3 credit-rating agencies? The one that was hacked so badly this year, it let the personal information of more than **one hundred million people ** flow like a fire hose into the dark recesses of the 'net?

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Yeah, well the government just awarded Equifax a multi-million dollar contract to do work for the IRS.

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Wait, What?!\n

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Um, I'm not even sure what to say about this one, folks. Except that the contract was awarded without a bidding process, and will give Equifax access to even more sensitive personal data about Americans, only now it's information the government collects about us.

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Now, to be fair, the IRS told Politico \"...the IRS believes the service Equifax provided does not pose a risk to IRS data or systems...\"\r\nHere's the contract notice, in case you're interested. (The IRS official listed as the \"primary point of contact\" is going to have a fun day.) The Equifax breach was so bad, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, Greg Walden (R-OR), said,

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\"It's like the guards at Fort Knox forgot to lock the doors.\"

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We'll keep on this story, right here. Hit that Take Action button to tell your Reps what you think, and let's talk about this one in the comments, and on Twitter -- I'm @RadioBabe.

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Your Gov at a Glance

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The White House: Trump in DC and Las Vegas, NV

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President Trump and First Lady fly to Las Vegas to visit with victims, medical teams and first responders of Sunday night's mass shooting.

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The House of Representatives: In Session

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\nVoting on amendments to the GOP budget resolution for fiscal year 2018

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The Senate: In Session

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\nConfirmation vote on the nomination of Eric Hargan to be Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services\n
\nCloture vote on the nomination of Randal Quarles to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

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\r\nHave a great day, folks. Take care of yourselves. It's been a doozy of a week — and it's only Wednesday.

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— Andrea Seabrook, Managing Editor

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Talk to Andrea directly on Twitter, @RadioBabe. Send questions, make comments and keep in touch.

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