[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 23 (Thursday, February 6, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S777]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority leader is recognized.


                                The IRS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, just last year, IRS officials and an 
inspector general report confirmed what we have been hearing from 
constituents for quite a while: The IRS was being used to target 
Americans for daring to exercise their first amendment rights, for 
daring to think differently, for daring to hold opinions contrary to 
high-ranking government officials. They confirmed that civic groups the 
administration opposed, including at least one in my home State of 
Kentucky, were harassed and bullied by the IRS. They confirmed that 
individuals who supported these groups were intimidated and attacked, 
and they confirmed something else too--that this happened in the runup 
to a national election.
  So Americans were rightly outraged--outraged--when the worst fears of 
citizen organizations came to light. The American people rightly 
expected the Obama administration to take concrete steps to end this 
harassment once and for all--to put safeguards in place that would 
ensure the same kind of abuse never, ever happens again.
  But that is not what happened. No, in fact, basically, the opposite 
of that happened. The Obama administration now seems to be trying to 
legitimize the harassment after the fact, to enact regulations that 
would essentially allow the IRS to bully and intimidate Americans who 
exercise their right of free speech. It is something they were 
originally planning actually to slip by while the harassment was 
actually still going on.
  But here is the thing. The administration knew it could never get 
anything like that through Congress the democratic way, so it is trying 
to quietly impose these new regulations through the back door--through 
the back door--by executive fiat. Administration officials insist the 
rules change is just a minor bureaucratic adjustment. Nothing to it, 
they say. They claim it is just a ``good government'' idea from the 
IRS--a response to the inspector general report that brought these 
terrible abuses to light.
  Of course, we know that is not true. We know the administration had 
been working on this proposed rule for at least 2 years--2 years--
before the inspector general report came out, and from the looks of 
things there is nothing ``good government'' about this at all. As with 
so much of what we have seen with the Obama administration, it is 
almost purely political--transparently political.
  Under the administration's proposed regulations, many citizen groups 
could be prohibited--prohibited--from participating in some of the most 
basic civic engagement activities--things such as voter registration, 
issue advocacy, and educating citizens about candidates before an 
election. This is just plain wrong. Grassroots groups shouldn't be 
persecuted for doing what Americans expect them to do. They shouldn't 
be forced to shut up or shut down or for engaging in the very kinds of 
educational activities that the 501(c)(4) designation was designed to 
support.
  The idea is to shut up and shut down the voices that oppose the 
administration's priorities, and it comes on the heels of a long-
running pet project of this administration to expose conservative 
donors to harassment in order to try to dry up their funding.
  Americans who care about the First Amendment need to stand up to this 
regulation before the administration has a chance to finalize it. The 
American people need to stand up to this regulation before the 
administration has a chance to finalize it. And they actually are. More 
than 20,000 citizens have already submitted comments on this proposed 
rule at regulations.gov. Nearly all the ones I saw were opposed.
  In the House, Representative Dave Camp has introduced legislation 
that would prevent the IRS from implementing any such regulation, and 
next week, I, along with Senator Flake, Senator Roberts, and others, 
will introduce companion legislation that would do the same in 
the Senate.

  But I hope it doesn't have to come to that. There is a much easier 
fix available. There is a way out of this dilemma. The new commissioner 
of the IRS, John Koskinen, can put a stop to the rule right now if he 
chooses. He can stop this right now if he chooses. If he means what he 
said when the Senate confirmed him--the comments we heard about 
restoring integrity to the IRS--then he will do just that. The Speaker 
and I, along with top Senate and House leadership and the leadership of 
the relevant authorizing and appropriating committees, have just sent a 
letter to Mr. Koskinen on this topic, and we look forward to his 
response.
  Back in the 1970s, Richard Nixon famously tried to influence the IRS 
into helping him punish his political opponents. The IRS has been in 
this spot before. Back then, the IRS commissioner stood up to President 
Nixon and said, essentially: No, that is not what this agency is 
supposed to do. So the history is that when a previous IRS commissioner 
had a President of the United States try to use him to target his 
political enemies, the Commissioner of the IRS stood up to the 
President and said no. He said no to the President. The President 
cannot use the IRS to target the President's political enemies. That 
act of courage and independence became the defining act of an already 
distinguished career, and it was something for which the American 
taxpayer should be forever grateful.
  So, today, Commissioner Koskinen has a similar choice. He can either 
be remembered as the man who reformed this IRS at a time when Americans 
were deeply distrustful of it or he can be remembered as the man who 
allowed himself to be used by the administration for its own political 
ends. That is the choice.
  The bottom line is this. Americans need to be able to trust the IRS 
again, and that means getting our Nation's tax agency back into the 
mission it was designed to perform such as processing tax returns, not 
regulating free speech. The Obama administration's proposed rule has 
almost nothing to do with actual tax policy. It is more about making 
harassment of its political opponents the official policy of the IRS. 
That is completely unacceptable. Remember, this is an agency that has 
access to some of America's most sensitive personal information: the 
power to audit, to penalize, to harass--power that is pretty wide-
ranging.
  So it is not surprising that groups all across the political 
spectrum, from the ACLU to the Chamber of Commerce, have expressed 
concerns about this rule.
  Let's be clear. Let's be perfectly clear. Commissioner Koskinen knows 
the IRS has no business regulating free speech. He knows that. The eyes 
of America are on the IRS commissioner. They are counting on him to do 
the right thing.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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