[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 15, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3438-S3439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                THE IRS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it seems like, with each passing hour, 
the facts get more and more inconvenient for senior folks over at the 
IRS.
  Yesterday, it was reported that the agency may have gone after a 
ministry founded by Billy Graham. We also learned that the very same 
IRS office that admitted to harassing conservative groups also released 
nine pending applications for tax-exempt status to the liberal 
investigative group ProPublica.
  How did we find out? ProPublica revealed it.
  Basically all we have gotten from the IRS, on the other hand, is an 
attempt to scapegoat some folks out in Cincinnati and a laughable 
attempt to move past this whole issue with a ridiculous op-ed claiming 
``mistakes were made.''
  Well, most folks don't think that ignoring the Constitution is simply 
a ``mistake.'' I like the fact that one group the IRS targeted, when 
asked by the agency to provide reading materials related to their 
mission, mailed them a copy of the Constitution.
  Today, I would like to encourage every group that feels like it has 
been unjustly targeted to do the same. Maybe just underline the First 
Amendment before you put it in the envelope, because that is what this 
is all about.

[[Page S3439]]

  But getting back to the latest news--the leak to ProPublica--let's be 
clear about what this means: the IRS is forbidden from providing that 
kind of information about groups that have not been approved. It is a 
bright line prohibition that even the lowliest staffers at the IRS 
surely should know about.
  We intend to find out all the relevant details. Yesterday, I said the 
administration needs to comply fully with all congressional inquiries 
on the matter. This ProPublica leak will unquestionably be one of them. 
The administration needs to make witnesses available to testify on this 
and on any other incident of targeting the administration's ideological 
opponents, and to resist the temptation to stonewall or obfuscate what 
took place.
  Today, other Senate Republicans are joining me in this call. More 
than 40 members have signed a letter demanding as much of the 
President.
  If the President is truly concerned about this issue, as he claims, 
he will work openly and transparently with us to get to the bottom of 
what happened and people will be held accountable. These allegations 
are serious--that there was an effort to bring the power of the Federal 
Government to bear on those the administration disagreed with, in the 
middle of a heated national election. It actually could be criminal. 
And we are determined to get answers.
  Again, let's not forget that we would not know any of this if 
congressional Republicans had not demanded better answers than the ones 
we were getting from the administration. When I and several of my 
colleagues wrote to the IRS last year seeking clarification on 
allegations that they were harassing conservative groups, the response 
we got was essentially: nothing to see here, move along.
  When I pressed the issue in a speech last June, the left either 
ridiculed the suggestion or ignored it. When IRS officials were asked 
point blank in congressional hearings whether this was happening, they 
said point blank that it wasn't.
  Of course it turns out it was.
  By the way--you know who did not have trouble getting information out 
of the IRS? ProPublica, which was pushing an ideological agenda 
friendly to the administration. When they asked the IRS for 
information, they got it--in 12 days. Some of it was not even supposed 
to be released.
  When I asked the IRS for information, when did I get it? Only when it 
was coming out anyway in an IG report.
  So there are a lot--a lot--of unanswered questions that remain.
  Which officials knew about this scandal?
  When did they know about it?
  What did they do about it when they found out?
  Did they deliberately mislead Congress and the American people?
  The number of officials involved continues to grow. And now, with 
this revelation from ProPublica, it appears that the campaign against 
conservative groups was of a broader scope than originally admitted. So 
it is no surprise that the American people are demanding more than just 
some half-hearted apology made under duress. As an activist from one of 
the targeted groups in Kentucky said yesterday, ``Apology not 
accepted.''
  ``There are many questions that still need to be asked,'' he said. 
``There are many that remain unanswered.''
  My constituent was absolutely right.
  I ask unanimous consent the letter signed by my colleagues be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                             United States Senate,
     Washington, DC, May 14, 2013.
     Hon. Barack Obama,
     Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: We are writing to express our grave 
     concerns and deep disappointment about the revelations in a 
     report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax 
     Administration (TIGTA) that the Internal Revenue Service 
     (IRS) had specifically targeted certain organizations for 
     extra scrutiny as part of their approval review of 
     applications for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status. This appears to 
     be a wholly inappropriate action that threatens to silence 
     political dissent and brings partisan politics into what used 
     to be a nonpartisan, unbiased and fact-based review process. 
     The public's confidence in the IRS relies on fair and 
     apolitical application of the law. Actions such as these 
     undermine taxpayers' ability to trust its government to 
     fairly implement the law.
       According to information given to Congress in a timeline 
     provided by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax 
     Administration (TIGTA), in early 2010 ``specialists had been 
     asked to be on the lookout for Tea Party applications, and 
     the IRS Determinations Unit had begun searching its database 
     for applications with `Tea Party,' `Patriots,' or `9/12' in 
     the organization's name.'' The report goes on to state that 
     ``By June 2011, some IRS specialists were probing 
     applications using the following criteria to identify tea-
     party cases, according to the Treasury inspector general 
     findings: `` `Tea Party,' `Patriots' or `9/12 Project' is 
     referenced in the case file; issues include government 
     spending, government debt or taxes; education of the public 
     by advocacy/lobbying to `make America a better place to 
     live'; statements in the case file criticize how the country 
     is being run.''
       We are deeply disturbed that agents of the government were 
     directed to give greater scrutiny to groups engaged in 
     conduct questioning the actions of their government. This 
     type of purely political scrutiny being conducted by an 
     Executive Branch Agency is yet another completely inexcusable 
     attempt to chill the speech of political opponents and those 
     who would question their government, consistent with a 
     broader pattern of intimidation by arms of your 
     administration to silence political dissent.
       These disclosures are even more unsettling as they 
     contradict prior statements made by representatives of the 
     Administration on this matter. In response to questions 
     raised in 2012 on this issue by Republican Senators, Steven 
     T. Miller, the Deputy Commissioner for Services and 
     Enforcement at the IRS, specifically (and falsely) stated 
     that there was an unbiased, technical screening process used 
     to determine which applications for 501(c)(4) organizations 
     merited further review. In two separate letters to Finance 
     Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, Mr. Miller failed to 
     note that explicitly political screens were used in reviewing 
     applications, despite the fact the practice was apparently 
     well known within the IRS as early as 2010.
       Given these strong and clear statements by the 
     Administration in 2012 that no such targeted review or 
     specified politically motivated criteria existed, these 
     revelations raise serious questions about the entire 
     application review process, and the controls in place at the 
     IRS to stop this sort of political interference once and for 
     all. According to TIGTA these actions took place more than 
     two years ago, yet without this information becoming public, 
     there is no evidence that your administration would have done 
     anything to make sure these abuses were brought to light and 
     dealt with in a transparent way.
       The American people deserve to know what actions will be 
     taken to ensure those who made these policy decisions at the 
     IRS are being held fully accountable and more importantly 
     what is being done to ensure that this kind of raw 
     partisanship is fully eliminated from these critically 
     important non-partisan government functions. As such, we 
     demand that your Administration comply with all requests 
     related to Congressional inquiries without any delay, 
     including making available all IRS employees involved in 
     designing and implementing these prohibited political 
     screenings, so that the public has a full accounting of these 
     actions. It is imperative that the Administration be fully 
     forthcoming to ensure that we begin to restore the confidence 
     of our fellow citizens after this blatant violation of their 
     trust. We look forward to working on this critical issue with 
     the Administration's full cooperation.
           Sincerely,
         Orrin Hatch, John Barrasso, Pat Toomey, Mitch McConnell, 
           John Cornyn, Bob Corker, David Vitter, Marco Rubio, 
           Mark Kirk, John Thune, John Hoeven, James Inhofe, Deb 
           Fischer, James Risch, Mike Johanns, Johnny Isakson, 
           Richard Shelby, Tom Coburn, John Boozman, Chuck 
           Grassley, Rand Paul, Mike Crapo, Dan Coats, Kelly 
           Ayotte, John McCain, Ted Cruz, Dean Heller, Richard 
           Burr, Pat Roberts, Roger Wicker, Thad Cochran, Ron 
           Johnson, Rob Portman, Michael B. Enzi, Jeff Flake, 
           Susan Collins, Saxby Chambliss, Roy Blunt, Jeff 
           Sessions, Lamar Alexander, Jerry Moran, Mike Lee, 
           Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, Lisa Murkowski.

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