It's simply unacceptable that vindictive government officials, snooping employers, disagreeable neighbors or anyone with a partisan axe to grind can potentially exploit private information such as donors' names, addresses, phone numbers, employers and other vulnerabilities, which is collected for no substantive purpose, to persecute fellow Americans solely on the basis of political opposition.

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There's no more fearsome federal bureaucracy than the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for American citizens across the political spectrum. 

Whether during the Watergate era under Richard Nixon, or the Lois Lerner scandal under Barack Obama, it has earned its reputation as a serial violator of Americans' privacy. 

Fortunately, Congress can help put an end to IRS abuse by passing legislation protecting the privacy of donors to nonprofit organizations, and eliminating the possibility of future targeting by IRS officials, state attorneys general or outside hackers. 

But it must act quickly. 

By way of background, the IRS still inexplicably requires private nonprofit organizations to file what's known as a 990 Schedule B form.  That form contains names, addresses and other sensitive personal information on many of the organizations' donors, which obviously exposes them to targeting and abuse if revealed. 

And here's the curious thing:  By law, the IRS cannot use the information contained on the form for any substantive purpose. 

If you're wondering why the IRS insists upon collecting and maintaining information that it's not even allowed to use within its vast bureaucratic bowels, then you're not alone. 

In recent years, we've become all too familiar with horror stories of American citizens being targeted by the IRS or others simply for holding political or religious opinions considered unfashionable.  When the agency warehouses sensitive information like that contained in the Schedule B form, it merely awaits hackers or rogue IRS officials to abuse it. 

As just one recent example, private data on donors to the National Organization for Marriage was outrageously leaked.  As another example, hyper-partisan state attorneys general like Eric Schneiderman of New York, doing his best Elliot Spitzer impression, have demanded access to the confidential donor information relating to organizations engaged in the climate change debate.  They simply cannot stand reasoned debate, so they target organizations and citizens who question their global warming orthodoxy. 

Other examples with which Americans are by now all too familiar abound.  Private citizens who did nothing more than contribute even small amounts to organizations whose missions they support have been driven from their places of employment, stalked and harassed at their home addresses and suffered online targeting. 

And then there's the problem of rogue IRS officials themselves targeting citizens and organizations, as illustrated by Lois Lerner during the Obama Administration. 

It's simply unacceptable that vindictive government officials, snooping employers, disagreeable neighbors or anyone with a partisan axe to grind can potentially exploit private information such as donors' names, addresses, phone numbers, employers and other vulnerabilities, which is collected for no substantive purpose, to persecute fellow Americans solely on the basis of political opposition. 

The good news is that Congress stands poised to act to finally end this form of IRS abuse of private donor information.  But the critical window of opportunity may slam shut on March 23, so there's no time to waste. 

Last year, the House of Representatives successfully passed a law entitled the "Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act," and conservative Tim Scott (R - South Carolina) introduced similar legislation in the Senate.  The bill sought to finally prohibit the IRS from forcing nonprofit organizations to surrender their confidential donors' identifying information. 

Last month, the exact same legislation under the same title was introduced in the new Congress as H.R. 4916 by Representative Peter Roskam (R - Illinois).  It's therefore incumbent upon Senators to introduce companion legislation for signature by a sympathetic White House. 

With government funding set to expire on March 23, Senators and Representatives can include the bill's protections amid the legislation to continue funding federal operations.  Doing so will offer a victory that they can show to conservative and libertarian voters otherwise opposed to what will inevitably be a largely disagreeable bill. 

This is an issue that garners unanimous support among conservatives and libertarians, so failure to act now would be inexcusable.  As House Speaker Paul Ryan (R - Wisconsin) has observed, now is the time to "fix this nation's tax code once and for all." 

That includes putting an end to IRS abuse of private donor information, which chills Americans' First Amendment freedoms of speech, association and political participation. 

If Congress fails to capitalize upon this fleeting opportunity to finally achieve IRS reform, its members will have earned whatever voter wrath awaits them.