A recently published article [] documents the actions by leaders of American Indian communities to protest audits and compliance checks by the Indian Tribal Governments office, an office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Indian Tribal Government's office was originally set up to help tribal governments understand tax obligations and comply with tax laws, but in recent months the office has been used by the IRS to initiate audits and compliance checks that according to tribal leaders " not only violate tribal sovereignty, but are discriminatory, harassing, and almost always fail to find any tax abuse". To defend themselves against the IRS actions, tribal leaders met recently at the mid-year conference of the National Congress of American Indians, where they passed a resolution for legislation that is intended to stop IRS audits and clarify the status of Tribal Nations as tax-exempt sovereign entities. Just as the National Congress of American Indians resolution was passed, the Senate Finance Committee began preparing for a major tax code overhaul lead by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch that will attempt to remove all special provisions from the tax code. According to the article, the National Congress of American Indians maintains that the tax code overhaul does not apply to Tribal Nations, as treaty rights and the U.S. Constitution acknowledge tribes as governments, so the U.S. tax code concerning Indian country must be guided by a different set of principles than apply to normal U.S. citizens and other taxable entities. At a hearing last year, the former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, John Yellow Bird Steele, told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that IRS actions in Indian Country are "menacing and intrusive". According to Steele, IRS agents in Indian Country act with disrespect and threats, and audit expenditures that should never be subject to taxation, such as housing assistance and funeral expenses. The Senate Finance Committee expects to finish the tax reform bill by the end of the year. According to the article, tribal leaders will be working continuously to ensure that the new bill does not further violate the rights and dignity of Tribal Nations.