[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 19, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H1809-H1810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HOLDING INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE ACCOUNTABLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, yesterday was tax day--or at least the 
deadline for filing and paying your taxes. I can't imagine very many 
citizens look forward to that.
  We all know that we have to do our part, but we are often frustrated 
by the unacceptable waste of government spending. We all work hard; 
yet, they take our money and oftentimes spend it on things that we find 
objectionable or, worse, they simply waste it.
  To add insult to injury, government doesn't have to follow the same 
standards that every citizen has to. Nowhere is this more obvious than 
in the IRS and its Commissioner, who scoffs at the very same rules that 
every other citizen has to abide by.
  Now, I would just ask you: If you got subpoenaed to produce documents 
and to protect documents and just ignored it, how do you think that 
would go for you? If you lied to government officials--let's say 
government officials in the IRS--about your tax records, knowing that 
they are requirements, and you just refused to provide them, how do you 
think that that would be for you?
  This is just another example of two sets of standards, one for the 
ruling class and another for the rest of the citizens. It was never 
intended to be this way, essentially where we are forced to serve our 
government.

[[Page H1810]]

  In this particular case, these folks just had the wrong opinions 
about their government and they were sure that they would be protected 
under the First Amendment, protected from reprisal and punishment, but 
that is simply not the case.
  Exactly what happened is that the IRS sought to cover up and blame 
others that had nothing to do with what happened.
  Remember, the feared and omnipowerful IRS targeted and punished 
certain Americans solely because of what they thought of their 
government, violating their First Amendment right provided by God and 
enumerated in our Constitution.
  Think about that. The full power and authority of the massive Federal 
Government and its endless resources focused on a few citizens because 
they dared to disagree. Is this a Communist country? Is this something 
worse?
  Let's remember how this started. The inspector general did an 
investigation and said they were going to file a report.
  Hearing that, Lois Lerner takes a planted question and lies about who 
did it. She blames it on the good workers in Cincinnati. The President 
calls for a criminal investigation, and the Commissioner is fired.
  However, when it really came to conducting that investigation, the 
Department of Justice really just couldn't be bothered. Then the person 
at the center of the issue comes to Congress and pleads the Fifth.
  Congress has to now look elsewhere for the truth. They are not going 
to get it from Ms. Lerner. So they look to her email communication.
  Subpoenas are issued, two of them, and three protective orders, one 
by the IRS itself. The IRS violates literally all of it while saying 
they went to great lengths in search of the truth.
  Come on. Great lengths? They didn't even check Ms. Lerner's 
BlackBerry.
  The new Commissioner, Mr. Koskinen, hired to clean things up, knows 
that 422 backup tapes were destroyed, including 24,000 of Ms. Lerner's 
emails; yet, he waits 4 months to tell Congress while coming multiple 
times to testify to Congress during that period. You lie about your 
lost documents for 4 months and see what happens.
  Mr. Koskinen violated his duty to preserve and provide the 
information. He violated his duty to disclose, he violated his duty to 
be truthful, and he violated his duty to correct the record about what 
he knew. Mr. Koskinen violated the public trust on multiple accounts.
  The issue at hand is that the agency Mr. Koskinen represents violated 
the constitutionally guaranteed rights of American citizens and nothing 
has been done about it.
  This simply cannot stand. We cannot have two separate standards of 
justice, one for the ruling class, one for the government, and one for 
the governed.
  Congress has a duty to get to the truth. As Representatives of the 
citizens, we don't have a police force. We are Representatives. We 
can't fire the Commissioner. We are Members of Congress. The only 
remedy that Congress has is the constitutional check of impeachment.
  Impeachment proceedings are the only way we can hope to get some 
relief from this agency which has been wantonly unaccountable in the 
most egregious fashion.
  It is the only way we will be able to determine whether the 
Commissioner violated the standards of trust set down for government 
officials.
  It is the only way we can start to move to a circumstance where our 
government serves the people as opposed to citizens being forced to 
serve their government.
  So, Madam Speaker, as we reflect on tax day, I respectfully request 
the resolution regarding the impeachment of Commissioner Koskinen be 
forwarded to the Judiciary Committee and to this floor for 
consideration.

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