WASHINGTON (AP) – 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.