Letter to Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense

Rep. Tauscher Calls On DOD To Provide Answers about Individual Ready Reserve

Rep. Ellen Tauscher was joined today by her colleagues, Reps. John Larson, Rahm Emmanuel, Kendrick Meek, Rick Larsen, Adam Smith, and Lane Evans, in authoring a letter to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld about IRR call-ups. Approximately 6,500 soldiers are expected to be mobilized, 5,674 of those will happen this month.

Rep. Tauscher is concerned about DOD plans to use the Internal Revenue Service to locate individuals in the IRR. She joined other members in calling for answers to her questions about the extent and duration of IRR call-ups and IRS involvement.

Her letter is below.

July 1, 2004

The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld,

We are writing to express our concerns about your January 20, 2004 decision to approve the Army's request to mobilize up to 6,500 soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), 5,674 of which will be mobilized this month. We request a fuller explanation of your unprecedented request to make use of the Internal Revenue Service to locate individuals in the IRR.

In response to the recall, we are deeply concerned that mobilizing the IRR will further overextend the all-volunteer Army and directly result in significant reductions in recruitment and retention in the future. This decision follows stop-loss orders that prevented troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan from coming home after their service and consecutive call-ups of the National Guard and Reserve. Recalling veterans who have were recently discharged will cause tremendous hardship on their families. These reservists, who already served and sacrificed for the country, will impose additional economic and emotional hardships on their families. Moreover, they will not be able to either fulfill vital homeland security missions in their communities or resume the careers they interrupted in order to serve.

To what extent and how often do you intend to exercise this authority? How long will the soldiers mobilized this week be expected serve and will you assure their families that they will not be recalled again? How do you explain the fact that the Pentagon has not sufficiently prepared currently deployed soldiers with the necessary skills in order to make progress toward achieving the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan? What measures are you taking to minimize the need to repeatedly recall up service personnel men and women who have already served?

In response to using the IRS to locate IRR volunteers, please explain why the Department is now requesting this authority? In the budget justification documents for the DoD's Fiscal Year 2005 request, the Department explains that it traditionally uses commercial sources such as credit reporting agencies as well as the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Postal Service to maintain personnel records for members of the Reserve components. Why are these sources of information insufficient to monitor IRR personnel?? Why is the Department not working jointly with the aforementioned agencies to improve their data collection methods if they are inadequate, rather than seek new authority to use information from other agencies?

If Congress grants this authority, what safeguards, if any, will the Department of Defense implement put in order place to safeguard taxpayer privacy?

We appreciate your timely response to these important matters.

Sincerely,

Ellen Tauscher

Rahm Emmanuel

Lane Evans

John Larson

Rick Larsen

Marty Meehan

Kendrick Meek

Adam Smith