After reports surfaced in recent days that the Internal Revenue Service had spent $60,000 to make a Star Trek parody video for use at training conferences, the IRS over the weekend apologized for how your tax dollars were spent.
The IRS said in a statement that the "space parody video from 2010 is not reflective of overall IRS video efforts," which the agency said are focused on employee training to effectively use the nation's tax system.
The video, in which the Star Trek crew approaches the planet "No Tax," helped open a 2010 training conference for IRS employees, which opens with a mock Star Trek crew on their never-ending mission "to seek out new tax forms, to explore strange new regulations and to boldly go where no government employee has gone before."
Why don't you watch it first:
This is not the first time that Republicans in Congress have been on the tail of the IRS for about its video production facilities, as GOP lawmakers pushed a series of tweets back in February calling for the studio to be cut.
"Instead of raising taxes, let's eliminate the IRS television studio," the GOP said, saying the "IRS spends $4 million annually to run its own full-service television production studio."
Evidently, Congress had found out about the Star Trek and Gilligan's Island parody videos, but officials at the agency had refused to turn over the material.
"Given the IRS's request for additional resources, it is important to determine whether and to what extent taxpayer resources were devoted to activities unrelated to your agency's core functions," wrote Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), who first asked for the videos back in February.
So, how did the videos get out?
CBS News was able to obtain the Star Trek video because of a Freedom of Information Act request.
This is not the first time in the last few years that we have seen news organizations obtain certain documents from reluctant federal agencies under FOIA, while lamwakers in Congress - whose job it is to oversee the operations of the federal government - have been left in the dark.
"The IRS provided a letter of response acknowledging the existence of the two videos," said a statement from the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee. However, the agency refused to comply with Chairman Boustany’s request to turn over the videos to the Committee."
Back in February, Boustany had asked for the following information no later than April 3:
+ An accounting of all costs associated with the production of the Star Trek video;
+ Any communications regarding the production, distribution or posting of the videos
+ A detailed account of all taxpayer money spent, not only by the IRS TV production facility, but any other contracts, leasing expenses and personnel costs.
Too bad that ex-Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH) isn't in Congress these days; he would certainly tell this story in a one minute speech on the floor of the House, and then use his trademark final line.
"Beam me up."
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