Nicole Malliotakis

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my legislation, H.R. 9499, the Protecting Taxpayers from Ghost Preparers Act.

This bill has received bipartisan support, and it passed unanimously out of our Ways and Means Committee.

Every year, millions of Americans turn to tax professionals for help navigating our complicated tax code. They should be able to trust that the person they are paying to prepare their return is acting honestly and following the law.

Unfortunately, dishonest tax preparers--often referred to as ghost preparers--take advantage of that trust. They alter returns, claim fraudulent deductions or credits, inflate refunds, and sometimes even take a percentage of the refund themselves. Then, they disappear and leave the taxpayer to deal with the IRS and the consequences. That is simply wrong.

We have seen serious cases across the country. In Kentucky, two individuals pleaded guilty after preparing nearly 6,000 fraudulent Federal tax returns, resulting in more than $10 million in tax losses.

In my home State of New York, a Long Island tax preparer pleaded guilty to nearly $12 million in a fraud scheme after preparing fraudulent returns and collecting more than $1 million in fees from his clients.

In the Bronx, an individual was sentenced to 4 years in prison for orchestrating a decade-long tax fraud scheme involving tens of thousands of false returns.

These schemes can leave innocent taxpayers holding the bag for misconduct they did not know about and did not participate in.

Under current law, the IRS generally has 3 years to assess additional tax after a return is filed. When a return is fraudulent, that limitation can remain open indefinitely.

The problem is that an innocent taxpayer could potentially face that unlimited period because of fraud committed by the preparer--even when the evidence is clear that the taxpayer had no intention whatsoever of evading taxes.

My bill fixes that. H.R. 9499 makes clear that the unlimited statute of limitations for a fraudulent return applies when the taxpayer intended to evade taxes, not when a dishonest preparer acted alone without the taxpayer's knowledge. That is basic fairness.

Taxpayers who knowingly commit fraud should absolutely face the consequences, and dishonest preparers who commit fraud should face the consequences, as well.

I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on policies to ensure that fraudulent preparers and other bad actors are held accountable for taking advantage of hardworking taxpayers.

Hardworking Americans should not face potentially endless tax liability because someone they trusted took advantage of them.

Mr. Speaker, this is commonsense legislation, and it is a taxpayer protection measure. I thank Chairman Smith and the committee staff for their work to advance this legislation, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tell a story of one of Staten Island's most extraordinary sons, Father Vincent Robert Capodanno, who 59 years ago last week gave his life in Vietnam while serving as Navy chaplain.

His Medal of Honor citation tells us what he did in a moment of unimaginable danger. But to understand Father Capodanno, we must ask a deeper question: What kind of life prepares a man to walk willingly onto a battlefield under relentless fire unarmed because wounded men are coming for him?

The answer began long before Vietnam. His first mission took him to Taiwan, where he served the Hakka people. He learned their language so he could know them, understand them, and better serve them. He administered the sacraments, distributed food and medicine, and cared for their spiritual and emotional needs. He worked with the youth, encouraging them throughout their scholastic challenges and achievements, some battling depression.

Service was not something he summoned in one heroic moment, but it was a pattern in his entire life. He carried that same conviction to Vietnam where he carried a cross, not a gun.

Father Capodanno refused to minister from a distance. He lived as the marines lived. He shared their brutal conditions because he believed he could not truly serve them without understanding their experience. He earned their trust and made their burdens his own. He prayed for them, and he comforted them.

On September 4, 1967, during Operation Swift, he crossed a battlefield under relentless fire to reach wounded marines. Wounded by a mortar blast, he refused treatment, directed the corpsmen to care for the other wounded, and continued his ministry. He was killed just inches from a wounded fellow American he was trying to save.

President Nixon posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1969, our Nation's highest military honor. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago, in 2006, the Catholic Church gave him the title Servant of God, opening his path for sainthood.

Father Capodanno was a priest whose faith and dedication to others led him to make the ultimate sacrifice. His last act did not create the man we honor. It revealed him.

May his story inspire people from across our Nation and around the world.

Honoring Sergeant Michael Sulsona

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Sergeant Michael Sulsona--a decorated United States marine, gifted playwright, and beloved advocate for his fellow Staten Island veterans--who passed away sadly last week.

Some people serve their country for a chapter of their lives. Mike Sulsona served his country for an entire life.

Mike joined the Marines as a teenager and served as a rifleman in Vietnam. On January 15, 1971, while walking point during an enemy ambush, he stepped on a land mine and lost both of his legs above the knee.

He returned home with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star to a country that did not always give Vietnam veterans the respect they had earned. Yet, Mike refused to let his injuries define his future.

He earned a master of fine arts in writing and became an accomplished playwright and screenwriter, receiving four national awards, including The Kennedy Center Award for playwrighting. He also appeared in the Academy Award-winning film ``Born on the Fourth of July.''

But his greatest legacy was helping others.

For more than four decades, Mike devoted himself to veterans suffering from Agent Orange exposure and post-traumatic stress, as well as homeless veterans, amputees, and burn victims. He helped them with their paperwork. He made phone calls on their behalf. He answered their call whenever they needed him, day or night.

Mike also fought tirelessly to have fellow Marine Sergeant Angel Mendez' Navy Cross upgraded to the Medal of Honor, an effort we were proud to work alongside him on and will continue on his behalf.

Mike once said: I put my name on the dotted line to be my brother's keeper.

That is exactly how he lived. He turned pain into purpose and a lifetime of service.

My prayers are with his sons, Vincent and Philip; his grandchildren, Lucas and Madison; and all who loved him. I also remember his wife, Frieda, his partner in life and service, who passed away just months before him.

Mr. Speaker, our community and country will never forget him. Semper Fidelis.

Mr. Speaker, first, let's be clear that socialism is communism light. Socialism is the first step to communism. If anybody doubts what I am saying, just listen to Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union, who proclaimed the goal of socialism is communism.

It begins with promises of free programs, government-controlled prices, and punishment of the supposedly wealthy, redistribution of wealth to help everyone. However, it ends with shortages, economic collapse, and a government powerful enough to take away citizens' rights, their property, and livelihoods, end the freedom of the press, and a complete takeover of the courts and judicial system.

Communism and socialism destroy. It steals from the people while those who run the regime live as kings. That is the reality. It is about consolidating power for a select few.

Now, since the last century, we have had Democrats and Republicans in Congress come together to condemn socialism, to stop the rise of communism in this country. Go back and read it in history: In the thirties and forties and fifties, and afterwards, they stood up against it, and they fought together, and that is why freedom always prevailed.

However, now we have one side standing up for freedom, for prosperity, and for the American way of life, and we have the other side that is actually rolling out the red carpet for socialism. I believe it is because they are trying to preserve their positions here in Congress and they care more about the primary elections than they do about protecting this country. They are rolling out the red carpet and nominating people who want to bring this dangerous ideology here to the Halls of Congress.

My mayor in New York City ran on an agenda of government-run supermarkets, abolishing private property rights, and seizing the means of production. Those were his words. That was his platform.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker. That is straight out of the playbook of Karl Marx.

That is exactly what they did to my mother's homeland of Communist Cuba. It is what destroyed her family, what took her home, what took my grandfather's small business, and what caused my family to break up and never see each other again.

That is what they are refusing to condemn today.

Republicans will stand on the side of freedom, of prosperity, of free markets, and of the American way of life. I hope my colleagues, at least some of them, have the guts to do what the Democrats did in the thirties, forties, and fifties, and join us on what should be a bipartisan position condemning socialism and communism in the United States of America.