[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 69 (Thursday, May 16, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3558-S3561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE IRS
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I rise today to speak on a matter that
deserves the attention of everyone in this Chamber.
By now we all know about what is going on at the Internal Revenue
Service. We have seen the report from the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration, TIGTA, indicating that between 2010 and 2012
the IRS was targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt
status for increased levels of scrutiny.
We have read the accounts of conservative groups that were asked
improper questions about their donors while some of their applications
were delayed for more than 3 years, even as applications for groups
friendly to the President and liberal causes were promptly approved.
We have heard the apologies from senior IRS officials and the
condemnations from the White House itself. While we know for a
certainty that this unacceptable behavior was going on at the IRS,
there is still much more we do not know.
For example, we still do not know why the targeting began or why only
conservative groups were targeted by the IRS examiners.
We do not know the full extent to which senior officials at the IRS
and Department of Treasury became aware of these practices, when they
found out, and what they did or did not do to put a stop to these
practices.
Perhaps most importantly, we do not know why, when Members of
Congress asked questions about these issues last year, and after senior
officials certainly knew of the problem--or problems--we were led to
believe that no groups were being targeted.
Indeed, neither Congress nor the American people learned anything
about these activities from the responsible officials until they were
trapped and their hands were forced.
There are not words to describe what has gone on here. Some of us
have tried. Words such as ``unconscionable,'' ``unbelievable,'' and
``Nixonian'' have been thrown around, rightfully, in my opinion.
But regardless of the words we use to describe it, this is easily the
most shocking and outrageous turn of events we have seen in Washington
in some time--and that is saying something.
One thing I am glad to see is that these actions have, for the most
part, been condemned by Members of both parties. In the end, I hope
both Republicans and Democrats will work together to address these
issues.
I have said from the outset that it does not matter if a tax-exempt
group is liberal, conservative, or moderate. It is an outrage that the
IRS would single out any group based on its political beliefs. On that
point there is bipartisan agreement in Congress and throughout the
country.
On the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Baucus and I are
undertaking a bipartisan investigation into this matter to find out
exactly what happened and make sure this type of thing never happens
again.
I am happy to be working with Chairman Baucus on this effort, and I
want to assure my colleagues that we are going to get to the bottom of
this. We are going to find out just how far down the rabbit hole the
IRS went in singling out groups based on their political beliefs. We
are going to find out why the IRS ignored a bedrock rule of tax
administration: Treat similarly situated taxpayers similarly--always.
We are going to find out exactly who was responsible, and we are going
to hold them accountable for their actions.
The IRS needs to come clean about what went on here. Chairman Baucus
and I intend to make sure they do.
Sadly, while the targeting of conservative groups in the review
process has gotten most of the attention thus far, there are other
issues involving the IRS that are every bit as disconcerting.
There are news reports indicating that in 2012, the same IRS office
improperly disclosed confidential information about certain
conservative groups to media organizations.
Last November, the journalist group ProPublica requested 501(c)(4)
applications for 67 different nonprofits. Less than 2 weeks later, the
IRS produced application documents submitted by 31 of the
organizations. Included in this group of documents were the
applications from nine conservative organizations that were still under
consideration by the IRS. ProPublica subsequently posted six of those
applications in redacted form on the Internet and published articles
analyzing the information they obtained.
This is disturbing for at least three reasons. First and foremost,
under section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, the IRS is prohibited
from disclosing applications for tax-exempt status that are still under
review. While the IRS is authorized, under section 6104, to release
application materials of groups that have already been granted tax-
exempt status, pending applications are required by law to remain
confidential. This appears to be a pretty cut-and-dried violation of
the Internal Revenue Code, meaning that civil and criminal penalties
may apply.
Second, the IRS responded to ProPublica's request in just 13 days.
That seems extraordinarily swift, and it raises the question of how
long the IRS normally takes to respond to such document requests. I do
not want to prejudge anything, but I suspect it usually takes longer
than 13 days to hear back from the IRS. It certainly takes longer than
that for the IRS to respond to requests from Congress.
Finally, this revelation comes not too long after other allegations
that the IRS disclosed confidential information submitted by
conservative nonprofits.
In the spring of 2012, activist groups and media outlets began
posting confidential donor information regarding the National
Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization, on the
Internet. Such information is also required by law to be kept
confidential.
Although the IRS is authorized to release yearly forms filed by tax-
exempt organizations, the law prohibits donor information from being
disclosed, and that is whether it is a conservative, moderate, or
liberal organization. Yet National Organization for Marriage's
documents that found their way online
[[Page S3559]]
in the middle of a Presidential election appeared to have come from the
IRS. This was suspicious, to say the least.
That is why, in May of 2012, I sent a letter to the IRS Commissioner
requesting an investigation into whether the IRS publicly disclosed
confidential donor information about the National Organization for
Marriage. To date, I have not received a substantive response.
So in addition to the revelations that the IRS was improperly
targeting conservative groups for scrutiny of their 501(c)(4)
applications, we have these unanswered questions about the possible
illegal disclosure of confidential information to media outlets and
other organizations. This is another matter that needs to be resolved
in order to restore the credibility of the IRS as a government agency.
That is why I, along with all the Republican members of the Senate
Finance Committee, have submitted a letter to the Treasury Inspector
General asking that he look into these issues.
Among other things, our letter requests that TIGTA--that is the
Inspector General's organization--investigate to determine which
employees at the IRS were responsible for improperly disclosing
confidential documents to ProPublica and whether any actions have been
taken against them.
In addition, this letter asks for an investigation into whether the
IRS followed its usual Freedom of Information Act procedures in its
prompt response to ProPublica's document request.
Our letter asks TIGTA to determine whether the IRS ever undertook an
investigation to determine if the agency was responsible for leaking
the National Organization for Marriage's donor information.
The American people have a right to expect government agencies to
perform their functions in a neutral, unbiased manner. When any agency
breaks that trust, it undermines the credibility of the entire
government.
These are not matters that can simply be wished away by public
apologies and condemnations.
They cannot be covered up by a handful of resignations, and they are
not covered up by an apology. I hope the administration knows this. The
only way to fully address these issues and to fully restore the
credibility of the IRS is to have full accounting of the facts. In one
way or another, we are going to learn all we can about the facts and
what went on there. I hope we can do so with the full and complete
cooperation of the administration.
Look, the IRS is the most powerful agency in government. Our
liberties depend upon an impartial IRS. We know many of the employees
of the IRS are represented by one of the toughest unions in this
country. We can presume from that most of them are not Republicans. Be
that as it may, the Democrats I know whom I honor and respect are those
who keep their word, live within constraints, follow the rules, do what
is right, and fight hard for their principles.
But the IRS is not a place where we should be doing anything but
fighting hard for the principles of fair treatment of all U.S.
citizens. I would be decrying this if the IRS was doing this to liberal
organizations. We do not expect it to ever do that, but I would surely
be decrying it. All I can say is that the very essence of liberty is
involved with what the IRS does or is doing. If we cannot rely on the
most powerful agency in government to treat people fairly, then this
country is in much greater trouble than many of us think it is. We know
we are in trouble. We know we are living beyond our means. We know we
are not doing what is right in this country. We know Congress could do
a much better job than it is doing. That includes both Democrats and
Republicans. It is inexcusable for an agency with the power the IRS has
to be involved in these types of shenanigans. It is chilling,
absolutely chilling to anybody who thinks about it, that this most
powerful agency can basically come down on anybody for almost any
reason if it is not honest.
We have to restore the trust and the honesty of the IRS. We have to
be able to rely on the IRS being fair, impartial, and in doing what is
right. I think I speak for my colleagues on the Democratic side. Many
of them are as outraged as I am about what went on here. It is not
right. I think the American people fully understand that.
I appreciate those who are honest. I appreciate those who do abide by
their ethical constraints. I appreciate those who are not political at
the IRS. There are many good people working there. I do not want them
to be besmirched by the few. There might be a little bit more than a
few people who do not honor the ethical constraints that the IRS simply
has to live up to. Let's hope neither side will ever again use the IRS
for political purposes.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
permitted to speak for up to 15 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, I wanted to come to the floor to follow
up on the news that we have had on the IRS situation, which I know is
concerning to all Americans, Democrats, Republicans, everyone. The
power of government is real and the power of the IRS is very real. So
anything involving an abuse of power in the IRS is going to concern
Americans irrespective of their political leanings.
Before I do, I just wish to comment on something that happened a few
moments ago at a press conference at the White House. I have tremendous
respect for the Office of the Presidency and for anyone who would hold
themselves out to hold the office. So I say this with the highest
respect.
I think the President today in his press conference potentially made
a mistake in an answer he gave. I would encourage the White House to
clear it up as soon as possible. He was asked specifically if he or
anyone in the White House knew about what was going on at the IRS
before April 22 of this year.
The President's answer was that he did not know about the inspector
general's report until he read about it in the press. So I would submit
to you he did not answer that question. I am not implying he did know
about it. I am just encouraging the White House and those there to
clear this up as soon as possible.
It is kind of reminiscent of when Attorney General Holder would not
answer Senator Paul's question about whether American citizens could be
targeted in the homeland with a drone. That led--we all remember what
it led to. It is a very simple and straightforward question. I would
encourage the White House and the President to echo what Jay Carney
said just a couple days ago, which is no one in the White House knew
anything about it. I think it is important for the President to answer
that clearly; again, not because I am implying he did know, because I
think if they leave that out there, it creates questions that should
not be created. I hope they will do that. It is important.
I wish to bring to the attention of the Senate and the American
people a compilation of stories that have emerged since the initial
question emerged. They are very troubling. They extend, quite frankly,
beyond the IRS, but I will begin with the IRS. Here is a report from
the Washington Examiner. The headline reads: ``IRS denied tax-exempt
status to pro-lifers on behalf of Planned Parenthood.''
Let me read what it says inside. It says: ``In one case, the IRS
withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition
for Life of Iowa.''
In a phone call that this reporter reported he had with one of the
leaders--I am sorry. One of the leaders claimed that in a phone call he
had with the IRS on June 6 of 2009, ``the IRS agent `Ms. Richards' told
the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board's
signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/
protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside of Planned
Parenthood.''
They said that ``once the IRS received this letter, this application
would be approved.'' That is troubling if true. That is one report that
is in the news.
Here is another one. This one comes from a very respected individual
in the United States. His name is Franklin Graham. He is the son of the
Reverend Billy Graham. He claims the Billy Graham Evangelical
Association and the family's international humanitarian organization
Samaritan's Purse, the
[[Page S3560]]
IRS notified them in September that it was conducting a ``review'' of
their activities for tax year 2010.
He goes on to say, by the way, that this review happened after Mr.
Graham's organization published newspaper ads in North Carolina backing
a State constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. That is in
the news. That was from Politico. Again, I am just reporting what
different outlets are reporting.
This is another report that has been out there. I think I alluded to
this yesterday in my speech. This talks about how the same IRS office
that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt
status in the runup to the 2012 election released nine pending
confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late
last year. I think this is actually ProPublica admitting that is where
they got the information.
This is in response to a request for the applications for 67
different nonprofits last November. So this is an admission, basically,
from ProPublica, which is in this not-for-profit investigative
reporting group. They are admitting the source of these leaked
documents was the IRS office in Cincinnati, the leaked documents of
nine conservative groups.
So now it is no longer audits, it is cooperating with investigative
journalists by provided them with information which is illegal to
provide them, confidential tax information. That is what this report
says from the organization that got the leak.
This is FOX News Latino. It reports that the former President of San
Antonio tea party said they received a questionnaire with over 50
questions, including inquiries into whom the group met with, where
their meetings were held, who was in attendance, the subjects of
internal e-mails, et cetera.
This is in line with some of the other stories we have been hearing
around the country. This was actually posted online. These are letters
going back and forth between the Richmond tea party and the IRS. These
are the actual online letters we pulled, with some information redacted
for privacy.
Some of the questions they were asked: Provide the following
information for all events and programs you have conducted and
participated in from October 22 to now.
They wanted copies of handouts provided to the audience. They wanted
to know if there were any speeches or forums conducted in the event or
program, provide detailed contents of the speeches or forums, the names
of the speakers and panels, their credentials, the names of persons
from your organization and the amount of time they spent on the event
or the program. Indicate the percentage of time and resources you spent
on all of the events and programs in relation to your activity.
It goes on and on. This is page after page of information being asked
of a citizen group by the IRS. Anyone who has gotten a letter from the
IRS understands it is never a pleasant circumstance, unless there is a
refund check in that envelope. You go to the mailbox, open it, it says
IRS, and no one likes that.
Just imagine this group of everyday citizens. These are not
professional political activists. They do not have entire law firms at
their disposal. These are just everyday Americans who are speaking out
about the principles of limited government and free enterprise. By the
way, if they were speaking out in favor of big government, they still
have the same right not to be harassed by the IRS.
So I just want to bring the real face of this to bear, because this
is not just a problem with an abuse of power in the IRS. Think about
the impact this has had on the lives of everyday Americans who one day
decided: I want to get involved in politics. I want to speak out. I
want to say something. They get hit with a letter such as this, this
kind of questionnaire, which quite frankly what happens with a lot of
these people is they decide I am not going to do it. I am not going to
get involved. I do not have the time for this. I do not need the
hassle. Maybe that was the intent.
So we went over that for a moment. Here is something that is very
troubling. This is from USA Today. The USA Today headline: ``IRS
approved liberal groups while Tea Party in limbo.'' Some of those
groups were approved in as little as 9 months. Bus for Progress in New
Jersey, a not-for-profit that uses red, white, and blue buses to drive
progressive change, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment,
they got their tax-exempt status just 9 months after a pretty simple
and straightforward process.
Progress Florida in my own home State, similar experience. Again,
this is USA Today. I think this was their cover story yesterday, where
it described the difference in how tea party groups are treated, in
comparison, that had words in their title such as ``progress'' or
``progressive.''
Here is one more that actually shows this kind of behavior extends
beyond the Internal Revenue Service. This is from the Competitive
Enterprise Institute, May 14. It talks about how public records
produced by EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, in response to a
lawsuit filed by CEI under the Freedom of Information Act, show a
pattern of making it far more difficult for limited government groups,
in particular those that argue for more freedom and less EPA, how it
makes it harder for them to get access to public records.
For example, green groups such as the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Sierra Club, the Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, Earth Justice, they had their fees waived in 75 out of
82 cases.
Meanwhile, the EPA effectively or expressly denied CEI's request for
fee waivers in 14 of its 15 requests--14 of its 15 requests. So that is
93 percent of the time versus basically the alternative, which is what
they did to these other groups. Again, all a chain in a pattern of
behavior that I think is not anything any of us ever want to see. So
far I have not seen it, and I do not think we are going to, quite
frankly. I suspect we will not see a single Member of Congress come to
the floor of either Chamber and say this is acceptable behavior.
I wish to tie in the loop, though, because this is not just about
these agencies run amok. This is not just about a handful of people in
the IRS's Cincinnati office or somewhere else doing something wrong.
This is much deeper than that.
I talked about it yesterday, I will repeat it today; that is, the
sense that this administration has pursued a real culture of
intimidation in the political process, including the way it ran its
campaign. But I wish to take it one step further. What this should
remind us of is the danger of government power. Let me stop there and
remind everyone. We need government. No one here--I do not know any
anarchists who serve in the U.S. Government, for the most part. All of
us believe government has an important role to play in our country and
the national defense. By and large, we believe there needs to be a
safety net to help those who cannot help themselves, not as a way of
life but to help those who have fallen to stand and try again.
We think the government plays an important role in our laws. One of
the things that attracts people to the United States--for example, to
do business here--is that we have a legal system where property rights
are going to be respected. So if one says they own a piece of property,
it belongs to them. No one would necessarily dispute that. If they do,
they have to go to court. There are countries in the world where the
owner of the property is whoever has the bigger guns or whoever has the
best connection to government. We take that for granted sometimes.
So there is a role for government to play. It is a very important
role. But the problem is that our Framers, the Founders of this Nation,
had a deep suspicion of government no matter who was running the
government. They rejected this notion that if we get very good people
in government, we will have very good government.
Government has a role to play. But when government's powers extend
beyond its natural limits or its important limits, we start to have
problems such as these emerge. I bring this to the floor because this
is exactly what we have been debating in so many instances, is
expanding the natural power of government beyond where it should be and
allowing it to have jurisdiction and influence over areas of our life,
where no matter who is in charge, Republican or Democrat, we may not
like the way it turns out.
[[Page S3561]]
We talked about the IRS for a moment. The IRS is going to be on the
frontlines of enforcing the health care law. This is the same agency of
government that has for the most part over the last few years, now by
admission of everyone involved, been abusing power--at least some of
their employees have. I don't want to besmirch the entire agency. As
Senator Hatch was saying a few minutes ago, there are very good people
at work all throughout government who would never participate in this
sort of behavior.
My point is that this is the agency that was targeting Americans
because they were organizing themselves as conservatives. This is now
the agency that is going to be empowered with new powers it has never
had before--the power to force every American to either buy health
insurance or pay a fine, buy health insurance or pay a tax.
In the weeks to come, I am going to be outlining examples of why
giving government more power than it should have creates situations
like this--the potential for situations like this to occur. There was
enormous wisdom in limiting the power of the Federal Government that
our Framers had, enormous wisdom in that. That is why they specifically
said: If this Constitution doesn't give the Federal Government this
power, it doesn't have it. We sometimes forget that lesson from two
centuries later, but we shouldn't. That is an important limit.
I think we can have an honest debate about what role government
should be playing in our lives and in our economy. There could be an
honest debate about that because there is a role for government to
play. There is an important role for government to play in our country.
It can go too far, whether it is in the realm of civil liberties or
economic liberties. That is what I think the debate should be focused
on in the weeks to come, in addition to getting to the bottom of what
has happened here, understanding clearly what has happened here.
I am involved in another endeavor: immigration reform. One of the
biggest impediments to immigration reform that I am facing--that we are
facing--is this distrust of the Federal Government. It is the belief
that they are not going to enforce the law. No matter what we pass or
what we put in place, they are not going to do it. We tried this 20 or
30 years ago, and they didn't do it. That is unfortunate. I hope we can
overcome that. I believe we can because the truth is that the vast
majority of Americans--the vast majority of Republicans, Democrats,
Independents--are willing to deal with the fact that we have 11 million
people living in this country illegally so long as we can ensure that
this problem never happens again in the future. They are willing to
deal with that. We have to win their confidence that, in fact, the
measures we are going to take are going to prevent that from happening
in the future. We are struggling because people have such a distrust of
the government's willingness or ability to enforce the law. You see it,
even in that issue, rear its head.
I think it is important to remind ourselves that even if government
is run by the best people with the best of intentions, it has a
tendency to do these sorts of things. You see that at every level but
particularly at the Federal level where there are such enormous powers.
Anytime we come here and debate giving government a new power, a new
agency, a new mandate, or a new jurisdiction, we should be cognizant of
the history of government power. We should be cognizant of what it has
meant throughout human history. We should remember why the Framers
limited that power to begin with--because they understood that power
could be abused.
In the weeks to come, I know that I, along with all my colleagues,
want to get to the bottom of this. We want to understand from the IRS'
perspective who was involved in doing this, why this happened, and,
more importantly, what we can do now to make sure this never, ever
happens again, what we can do now to ensure that not just in the IRS
but across the government that a situation like this never happens
again so that no matter what your political persuasion may be, no
American ever feels afraid to speak out politically because they may
wind up the target of governmental action.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up
to 20 minutes.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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