Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan research center at Syracuse University that disseminates federal government statistical information, filed a lawsuit April 14 against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for withholding information about enforcement actions that has been publicly available for the past 30 years. The center filed the lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after the IRS rejected a request for the statistical data, claiming releasing it could compromise homeland security. TRAC submitted three separate FOIA requests for the IRS statistical databases in November 2004. Despite a consent decree from prior litigation requiring the agency to make statistical data available to TRAC on an ongoing basis, the IRS rejected each request. The agency claimed that the requested records did not exist, explaining that basic statistics about audits, appeals and collection activities were no longer compiled. The IRS also cited "new federal security requirements" to justify its refusal to release an IRS manual for statistical information systems. TRAC claims in the lawsuit that the IRS does not have a valid exemption under FOIA to justify withholding the documents. The requested information is unclassified, and IRS officials do not possess the authority to designate documents for "Internal Use" only. The lawsuit also seeks a ruling that would allow the pursuit of disciplinary action against responsible agency officials for arbitrarily and capriciously withholding these documents from the public. Scholars, public interest groups, researchers and journalists use the requested information to evaluate the agency's implementation of tax laws. Previously, the data has been used to prove that rich taxpayers involved in enforcement actions are more successful in reducing the taxes and penalties owed than poorer taxpayers. David Burnham, co-director of TRAC, evaluated the IRS position stating, "From my research, it appears the IRS is reverting to its habits in the 1950s and 1960s, when secrecy was the norm and the problems of corruption and political abuse were later uncovered by the Congress." Public Citizen Litigation Group, a public interest group with extensive experience litigating FOIA cases, is representing TRAC in this matter.