[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 98 (Monday, June 23, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S3889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                               TRUST GAP

  Mr. COATS. Madam President, I just returned a couple of hours ago to 
Washington from Indiana, and over the last several months, as I have 
been visiting and talking to Hoosiers, I have continued to hear 
concerns about--and I am concerned, frankly--this widening trust 
deficit between the American people--at least the people I represent, 
and I think I can say pretty much across this country--and Washington. 
The American people lack confidence in Washington, confidence that they 
are getting the straight story, the hard truth. Not a lot of good 
things over the past several months have come out of either this body 
or a number of Washington agencies.
  This trust gap is ever widening as we have kind of careened from 
scandal to scandal, incident to incident, broken promises made by top 
officials, false statements being made, the latest of which is now this 
resurrection again of the IRS scandal.
  Let me say this: It has been said that no agency in Washington is 
less forgiving than the Internal Revenue Service. No agency in 
Washington has more power over the American people than the Internal 
Revenue Service. If there is an agency that needs to be apolitical and 
to not engage in anything that could even be deemed political, it is 
the IRS, given the power they have to destroy your reputation, destroy 
your finances, and destroy your business.
  The way they work is they determine you are in violation, in a sense 
reversing what is sacrosanct in America; that is, you are innocent 
until proven guilty, but under the IRS, you are guilty until proven 
innocent. You have to hire lawyers and accountants and sit down with 
them to prove you are not violating their rules. That is upside down.
  One of the founding principles which sets the United States apart 
from other nations and makes us exceptional is the First Amendment to 
the Constitution. Under the First Amendment, Americans are 
constitutionally guaranteed the right to organize around the issues and 
values they believe in and the right to disagree with their government. 
We look around the world and see that is not the case in very many 
places. But in America, that cherished right to take a position 
opposite our government--to protest, to organize, and to seek changes 
as a result of that organization--this liberty is part of what 
energizes and fuels the very spirit of America and everything we stand 
for.
  So when a so-called independent agency of the Federal Government 
attacks average American citizens for expressing their beliefs, a 
fundamental trust is broken and it is very hard to repair. Again, no 
agency has perhaps more intimidating power over American citizens than 
the Internal Revenue Service.
  We owe it to the American taxpayers to reveal the truth--the full 
truth--of what has happened at the IRS and repair the damage of this 
agency's reckless actions in regard to those who have organized for 
political purposes, to protest, to assert their First Amendment rights, 
to follow the law and exercise those First Amendment rights, without 
having an agency of the government targeting them and intruding on what 
they are trying to do.
  It is clear now that in 2010 the IRS targeted conservative groups--
including one in my home State--for extra scrutiny based on political 
leanings. The agency displayed a stunning abuse of power and complete 
disregard of our Constitution in taking this action.
  Lois Lerner, the former Director of the IRS's Exempt Organizations 
Unit and the official at the center of this ongoing congressional 
investigation, refuses to testify before Congress on the advice of her 
attorney. Yes, she has the right to plead the Fifth Amendment to not 
answer questions, but we are getting stonewalled by the IRS in getting 
to the bottom of this and determining what kind of abuse has taken 
place against the American people. We are trying to reach the truth, 
but we are being denied that opportunity to reach the truth because 
those who know the truth refuse to testify under subpoena from the 
Congress.
  Last Friday my House colleagues heard testimony from IRS Commissioner 
John Koskinen about missing emails from Lerner and six of her IRS 
subordinates.
  Now, isn't this a coincidence? We know the IRS has been targeting 
groups, attacking their First Amendment rights, and the House oversight 
committee is seeking to find out whether this happened. The IRS is 
denying it, but Lois Lerner refuses to testify.
  IRS Commissioner Koskinen comes in and says this is not true. OK. 
Let's prove it.
  The IRS asks taxpayers to prove they didn't violate their rights 
under the IRS rules, but when we ask the IRS: Can you prove whether 
what you are saying is the truth, that you were not targeting these 
organizations, they claim they lost the evidence. They say the server 
crashed and all the emails we could trace back to determine the truth 
of this are lost. They are all gone.
  The American people know that you can get into hard drives and find 
out everything ever put in there. Isn't it strange that only the IRS 
determined that, well, this whole thing crashed, so let's get rid of 
the hard drives.
  Now, thousands of emails that could have led to a trace and allowed 
us to find the truth, disappeared. What a coincidence.
  Do we think the American people buy this story? It would be laughable 
if it wasn't so serious. To claim that 2 years' worth of emails were 
completely, inadvertently lost is laughable on its face.
  So no emails, no backups, a crashed server, assertions made long 
after Members of Congress requested the information demonstrates at 
best a troubling lack of transparency and potentially criminal 
negligence. After all, the IRS is required to archive these emails by 
law.
  But let's put this in perspective. The very organization that expects 
busy, hard-working Americans to maintain meticulous financial records 
and complete extensive, confusing tax forms each year can't find 2 
years' worth of emails sent by its own employees. Even though we live 
in a day and age where virtually nothing ever disappears from the 
Internet, the IRS wants us to believe these emails are lost for good--
and maybe they are if they took all the steps they have taken.
  So to echo the comments of my colleague chairman Paul Ryan: The IRS 
owes every American taxpayer an apology.
  But an apology is not enough. We need answers and we need to find the 
truth. When this scandal first surfaced, the President promised 
Americans that he would ``work hand-in-hand with Congress to get this 
thing fixed.'' That is a quote, ``I will work hand in hand with 
Congress to get this thing fixed.''
  So how are they fixing it? They are sending the employees who were 
engaged and involved in this, and they basically either take the Fifth 
Amendment, saying they will not answer the questions, or they say: Gee. 
We lost all this stuff. I am sorry. Each of our six hard drives 
collapsed, and therefore we can't retrieve any kind of evidence that 
would prove where they are.
  I am not a big fan of special prosecutors. I think giving them that 
power has not always proven to be the best way to get to the bottom of 
something, but in certain cases where there is such clear evidence that 
the truth is being withheld and evidence that could lead us to a 
conclusion is potentially being destroyed--I think that is the only way 
we are going to get to the bottom of this.
  We need to start restoring the trust of the American people in their 
government agencies and in their government. Until we get to the bottom 
of this, this widening trust gap is going to continue.
  Appointing an independent investigator would allow us access to 
Federal computer records to determine whether copies of these missing 
emails can be found on the government IT network. Perhaps they have 
scrubbed them in a way that it will not happen, but at least it would 
allow us an independent assessment of what is going on.
  We can work to restore trust, but doing so will require answers and 
honesty from the Internal Revenue Service, which we are not getting.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.

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