Congress bewildered by Equifax’s IRS contract
After hack, firm gets $7.25M no-bid deal
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress expressed bewilderment Wednesday that credit reporting company Equifax, under siege after a data breach affecting more than 145 million people, has received a $7.25 million contract with the IRS to validate the identity of taxpayers communicating with the agency on the telephone or through its website.
The contract was the source of consternation in House and Senate hearings. Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee also demanded answers to a series of questions they submitted to the agency’s commissioner.
“Why in the world should you get a no-bid contract right now?” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-neb., asked former Equifax CEO Richard Smith at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in the morning.
Sasse’s indignation was soon topped by Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA., who said, “You realize, to many Americans right now, that looks like we’re giving Lindsay Lohan the keys to the mini-bar.”
“I understand your point,” Smith said in response to Kennedy’s observation, a reference to the actress who has struggled with drugs and alcohol.
Smith testified at the second of four congressional hearings this week in which lawmakers demanded to know how the breach happened and what the company was doing to make things right for consumers. Hackers stole Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses, and in some instances driver’s license numbers.
Smith said he didn’t know many details about the contract, but he explained that it was for work Equifax has done in the past for the IRS, and he thought the contract was being renewed. He also said he believed the contract was “to prevent fraudulent access to the IRS.”
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said Equifax forced the IRS to renew the contract because it issued a protest contesting the awarding of the work to another bidder. She called on Smith to tell the IRS that it’s fine to take the contract somewhere else.
The IRS issued a statement seeking to allay concerns about the security of taxpayer information. It said Equifax advised the agency that no IRS data was involved in the breach. The statement confirmed that the renewal was awarded to Equifax to prevent a lapse in service.
“Following an internal review and an on-site visit with Equifax, the IRS believes the service Equifax provided does not pose a risk to IRS data or systems,” the statement read.
An IRS document justifying the award said that the verification information is necessary to prevent tax fraud.
The document also said the contract only covers the timeframe needed to resolve Equifax’s protest.