[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 139 (Wednesday, September 14, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5495-H5498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IMPEACHING JOHN KOSKINEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. MacArthur). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, John Koskinen should no longer hold office. 
John Koskinen should no longer be the Commissioner of the Internal 
Revenue Service. Tonight I am joined by some of my colleagues to talk 
about why that should happen, why he should be removed from office.
  If you remember what took place here, the Internal Revenue Service 
targeted our fellow citizens for their political beliefs. They did it, 
and they got caught. Maybe most importantly tonight, thinking about the 
current Commissioner, the targeting continues.
  Now, you don't have to take my word for it. You can take what the 
United States Appellate Court for the District of Columbia stated. This 
is a decision from August 5, 2016, last month, from the opinion.
  The IRS has admitted to the inspector general, to the District Court, 
and to us--the United States Court of Appeals for the District of 
Columbia--that applications for exemption by some of the plaintiffs 
have never to this day been processed. They are still targeting 
conservative groups.
  They say it again right here:

       It is absurd to suggest that the effect of the IRS' 
     unlawful conduct, which delayed the processing of plaintiffs' 
     applications, has been eradicated when two of the plaintiffs' 
     applications remain pending.

  So here is the takeaway: they are still doing it.
  Here is the standard for removing someone from office: gross 
negligence, breach of public trust, dereliction of duty.
  Mr. Koskinen has certainly had those things take place under his 
tenure at the Internal Revenue Service.
  Here are the facts. February 2014, John Koskinen's chief counsel is 
on notice that there are problems with Lois Lerner's hard drive and 
missing emails from during the time of the initial targeting. They wait 
4 months before they tell Congress and, therefore, the American people.
  During that 4 months, they learn in February: Oh, we have got missing 
emails, problems with Lois Lerner's hard drive, an essential figure in 
this scandal.
  They wait until June before they tell Congress and the American 
people.
  During that 4-month timeframe, 422 backup tapes are destroyed. Most 
importantly, they are destroyed with three orders to preserve all 
documents, and two subpoenas to get those documents are in place. Now, 
think about

[[Page H5496]]

that. You have got missing emails, the backup tapes that contain those 
missing emails are destroyed during the 4 months you are trying to 
figure out and 4 months before you tell Congress, and those 422 backup 
tapes contain potentially 24,000 emails.
  That is why he should no longer hold office. That is why it is 
important that we take this vote at some point and remove him from 
office. So you have got the standard, which he certainly meets based on 
that fact pattern; and you have got the court, which just told us last 
month the targeting continues.
  The last thing I will say before turning to my colleagues: No private 
citizen could get away with that same scenario. If any one of us, any 
one of the three-quarters of a million people we all get to represent, 
any of those folks back in the Fourth District of Ohio, which I have 
the privilege of serving, if any one of those folks are audited by the 
IRS and they discover that they are missing documents that are critical 
to that audit and critical to what the IRS is looking for and they wait 
4 months to tell the IRS that they are missing those documents, and 
during that time the backup disk or the backup tape that contains those 
missing documents somehow gets destroyed, what is going to happen to 
them?
  Well, they are definitely getting fined and they are probably going 
to jail. But somehow when it happens to John Koskinen, the Commissioner 
of the IRS, it is okay. It is not okay. It is not okay in this country. 
This is what frosts so many Americans today. There are now two 
standards in this country. One for we, the people, and a different one 
for the politically connected. One for us regular folks and a different 
one if your name is Lerner, Koskinen or Clinton. That is not supposed 
to be how it works in this country, not in the greatest Nation ever, 
where we are all supposed to be treated equally under the law.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Fleming), 
my good friend.
  Mr. FLEMING. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for having this 
Special Order tonight.
  My good friend, Congressman Jordan has laid out the facts of this 
case. There are many other detailed facts that we don't have time to 
get into. But just to give you an example of what my constituents are 
saying to me, they are over-the-top angry at what Congressman Jordan 
was talking about, and that is that there seems to be two standards in 
America. There is one standard for the elite, there is one standard for 
the high-up officials in Washington, and then there is a standard for 
everyone else. We see this play out all the time.

  But there are some very notable groups and people who support our 
effort to begin the impeachment of John Koskinen, head of the IRS. I 
will just give you some examples.
  The National Review's editorial board:

       A weaponized IRS put to partisan political ends constitutes 
     an unbearable assault on American democracy and undermines 
     the very institutions of government itself.

  The Wall Street Journal, their editorial board:

       The U.S. attorney has refused to honor Congress' contempt 
     charge against Ms. Lerner for refusing to testify. The 
     Justice Department has closed its investigations into the IRS 
     targeting without prosecutions, and the press corps winks at 
     abuses of power when conservatives are the targets.

  That is precisely the point. It appears that the media--the liberal 
media, which most media is nationally, seems to be agreeing with this. 
In fact, I have had a number of media outlets out there who ask me: Why 
would you want to impeach the head of the IRS? What is wrong with him?
  Yet, you heard how we learned how Mr. Koskinen deceived Congress, 
refused to respond to subpoenas, evidence was destroyed in his tenure. 
So either he did it or someone did it while under his authority, and 
then again deceived Congress about that as well. So it is very clear 
there has been wrongdoing.
  While Mr. Koskinen has come to the Hill here to talk to Members--but 
he wants to do it offline and without being sworn in--he has not shown 
any interest in doing it under oath.
  The New York Post editorial board:

       If you responded to an IRS audit the way Koskinen's IRS has 
     behaved, you'd be looking at huge penalties and maybe prison 
     time.

  George Will, a noted conservative:

       Congress should impeach the IRS Commissioner or risk 
     becoming obsolete.

  Red State:

       Why the impeachment of the IRS Commissioner is a sign that 
     Congress might actually work?

  The American people have given up on Congress. Congress is the 
legislative branch, which is a co-equal branch of government, and it 
should be a check on the executive branch, and the judicial branch, for 
that matter. Yet, Congress has shriveled up and atrophied so much. The 
American people have given up on Congress ever doing anything about 
corruption at high levels of our government.
  And then Americans for Tax Reform:

       Why Congress should impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. 
     Since then, Koskinen has failed to reform the IRS with the 
     agency becoming increasingly politicized. Under Koskinen, the 
     agency destroyed several sources of Lois Lerner's emails 
     while he gave numerous false statements to Congress under 
     oath.

  So it is very clear that very notable people, patriots, and people of 
stature, people who are well-respected in America agree with the House 
Freedom Caucus that we should move forward.
  Finally, there has been polling on this matter. Freedom Works, for 
instance, has commissioned a poll. Very clearly the American people say 
by as much as a 66 percent net positive over negative that John 
Koskinen should lose his job. So I think it is very clear.
  I would just say that we are not sure what votes that we are going to 
have tomorrow on this subject, but any vote short of impeachment of the 
IRS Commissioner would be a vote against impeachment and would be a 
vote against showing Mr. Koskinen the door and getting someone who will 
do right by our leadership in the Internal Revenue Service, a very 
important agency, and one that has been so much abused--or, actually, 
victims. Americans have been abused--through its institution.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his hard work on 
this issue and for bringing the motion forward to get this issue in 
front of Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).
  Under the Obama administration, the IRS has consistently proven that 
it cannot be trusted to serve the best interests of the American 
people. Unelected bureaucrats like Lois Lerner and John Koskinen have 
weaponized the agency and used it as a tool to blatantly target 
innocent Americans simply for having different political beliefs.
  Rather than cleaning house and restoring the trust of the American 
people, the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has continued the pattern of 
criminal behavior and lawlessness within the IRS. On Koskinen's watch, 
more than 24,000 emails and 420 backup tapes providing critical 
evidence were completely erased.
  Koskinen failed to comply with a congressional subpoena, failed to 
testify truthfully in front of Congress four different times while 
under oath, and is now the ringleader for the cover-up of the targeting 
of innocent Americans by this rogue agency.
  Our Founding Fathers specifically empowered the House of 
Representatives with the authority to hold the executive branch in 
check when it violates the trust of the American people and, more 
importantly, when it violates the law.
  The only way we can change the climate of corruption in Washington, 
D.C., is to make an example of bureaucratic lawlessness. And we can 
start right now by removing John Koskinen from his job.
  Just you watch, if the House of Representatives takes action to fire 
John Koskinen, I guarantee you that the rest of the Obama 
administration and future administrations to come will get that 
message.
  It is beyond outrageous that not a single IRS employee has been 
brought to justice for targeting innocent Americans. The House has an 
obligation to pursue all constitutional options on the table to remove 
John Koskinen, including impeachment.
  Koskinen and accountability are within our reach, and my colleagues 
and I will not yield in our efforts to hold this lawless agency 
accountable until we get it done.

[[Page H5497]]

  

  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks).
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, Commissioner John Koskinen took over the Internal 
Revenue Service in the wake of the IRS conservative targeting scandal 
ostensibly to reform the agency internally. Instead, he continued his 
predecessor's legacy of stonewalling justice.
  After Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS' Tax Exempt Organizations 
Unit, invoked the Fifth Amendment when she appeared before Congress, 
the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena for 
IRS documents, including all of Lois Lerner's emails.
  The IRS' Chief Technology Officer also issued a preservation order 
instructing employees not to destroy any emails, backup tapes, or 
anything relevant to the investigation. But, Mr. Speaker, despite a 
congressional subpoena and a do-not-destroy order, the IRS inspector 
general found that the agency had erased 422 backup tapes containing as 
many as 24,000 emails. All the while, Commissioner John Koskinen 
knowingly and deliberately kept Congress in the dark.

                              {time}  2000

  Commissioner Koskinen was clearly aware that the emails were lost, 
but he knowingly and deliberately withheld that information from 
Congress for 4 months and stonewalled the entire investigation.
  Mr. Koskinen testified under oath four times before Congress during 
that 4-month period, saying he would turn over all of Lerner's emails, 
making no mention of the fact that the bulk of them had been ``lost.''
  Mr. Koskinen provided false testimony and swore under oath that the 
information on the bulk of the backup tapes was unrecoverable. The 
inspector general found that approximately 700 of those emails had not, 
in fact, been erased and were, in fact, recoverable.
  Mr. Speaker, John Koskinen then failed to protect citizens against 
the same type of future discrimination. A General Accounting Office 
report found no significant measures had been implemented under Mr. 
Koskinen's watch to ensure that civil servants at the IRS do not 
continue in the future to unlawfully target Americans based on their 
political or religious views.
  Mr. Speaker, this entire matter is absolutely counter to everything a 
Republic like ours was meant to be. In a constitutional Republic like 
the United States of America, we are fundamentally predicated on the 
rule of law; and there are very few things that break faith with 
America and the American people or that undermine their trust in their 
government more than witnessing those who are given the sacred 
responsibility to enforce tax collection equally and according to the 
law using the Federal Government's power of taxation unlawfully to 
economically destroy and deliberately oppress American citizens based 
on their religious or political views.
  Such a tyrannical abuse of power and the betrayal of their sworn oath 
to the United States Constitution by Commissioner John Koskinen and 
Barack Obama will be writ large in their shameful legacy because it is 
something that goes to the very heart of the rule of law in this 
Republic and that so many lying out in Arlington National Cemetery died 
to preserve.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States Congress has a duty to impeach 
Commissioner John Koskinen. The impeachment power is a political check 
that, as Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 65 of 1788, protects 
the public against abuse or violation of public trust. And Commissioner 
John Koskinen, appointed by Barack Obama, has unequivocally violated 
public trust.
  A taxpayer would never get away with treating an IRS audit the way 
the IRS officials have treated this congressional investigation; and 
the Congress of the United States owes it to the American people, to 
future generations, and to our sworn oath to the Constitution to hold 
the perpetrators of this tyrannical abuse of power accountable and to 
make sure that this never happens again.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for all his hard work.
  I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Kansas (Mr. 
Huelskamp), another hardworking Member.
  Mr. HUELSKAMP. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight and 
tomorrow.
  This House will have a chance to redeem itself a bit, or at least 
remain relevant for now. Hopefully, we will be voting on something of 
great consequence for a change.
  Tomorrow we in this body will be asked to vote for or against 
removing the IRS Commissioner. Make no mistake, however. This is not 
just a vote to remove one man from office. It is a vote for or against 
the rule of law itself. It is a vote for or against maintaining our 
system of internal checks and balances. It will be a vote for or 
against accountability for public officials and transparency in our 
government.
  For months, myself and other House Freedom Caucus members have been 
pushing for this accountability. Those who might oppose this measure 
most likely believe they are doing the right thing by defending the 
IRS. In fact, they are defending a toxic status quo in which our 
Nation's most powerful agency, the IRS, can legitimately be used to 
thwart one's political enemies. This is a status quo in which one party 
gains power in one branch of government, then uses the resources of 
that branch of government to depress the power of all other branches of 
government. This is something we would expect to see in an emerging 
democracy, not the greatest Republic in the history of man. Let's take 
a look back at how this all came about.
  During President Obama's reelection campaign, the IRS systemically 
prolonged consideration of applications for nonprofit status from 
hundreds of conservative organizations--in some cases, as we heard this 
evening, indefinitely. Many of those organizations were never able to 
recover from this denial; others were effectively neutralized for the 
duration of the 2012 election. This, of course, is a matter of fact and 
not of opinion. Eventually, the discriminatory practice was exposed, 
and Mrs. Lerner was removed from her position--although, I might note, 
she retained her full retirement pension from taxpayers.
  John Koskinen was imported as Commissioner to sort the mess out. 
Then, as the President promised, to restore our faith in the Federal 
Government, he would act in the best interest of all of us and not 
abuse his power ever again.
  But after Lerner refused to testify before Congress, the IRS casually 
mentioned that some of her emails had gone missing, despite the 
subpoenas and orders to preserve them--again, casually mentioned. In 
fact, we found out later, the IRS had erased 422 backup tapes 
containing as many as 24,000 emails.
  Now, think about that. If every email was one single page and you 
stack those all up, that would be 8 feet worth of erased emails.
  When the Commissioner told Congress under oath that many emails had 
been accidentally destroyed, he was lying. And when the Commissioner 
told Congress under oath that his agency would provide investigators 
with all of Mrs. Lerner's remaining emails, he was lying. And when he 
told Congress under oath that the IRS would fully comply with any FOIA 
request and otherwise assist our investigation into the practice of 
unfairly targeting organizations for their First Amendment beliefs, he 
was lying. And then when he and his boss, the President of the United 
States, told the American people, under the sacred trust vested in all 
public officials, that he would reform the IRS, make it more 
transparent and less hostile to families, faith organizations, and 
small businesses, he was not telling the truth.

  The Commissioner blatantly lied under oath on multiple occasions 
because he thought he could get away with it. Just like so many other 
administration officials, the Commissioner believed he was above the 
law and beyond reproach.
  Tomorrow we have a chance to resoundingly prove Mr. Koskinen's 
audacious assumptions wrong. These Articles of Impeachment--four for 
each lie he told--represent the negative consequences that the average 
American would face if he lied under oath.

[[Page H5498]]

  Some have called this effort petty. There are even some who believe 
there are other officials more deserving of removal. Perhaps they are 
right. However, in this case, we have someone whose violations of the 
law and the public trust cannot be disputed. And I would hope, in light 
of the indisputable evidence, this body could perhaps move beyond the 
partisan divisions so that justice can be served. I encourage my fellow 
Members to do the right thing and vote for accountability, vote for the 
rule of law, and vote for a government that has checks on its own 
power.
  I thank the Congressman from Ohio for his leadership. He is a true 
friend. This is a very serious issue. This is not a political issue. 
This is an issue of principle and rule of law for our government.
  Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentleman for his comments, which are right 
on target.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert).
  Mr. SCHWEIKERT. I thank the gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. Speaker, I actually wanted to touch on something that is a little 
bit different.
  Look, we have all seen the documents. We have all heard the argument, 
even this evening, on the bad acts. Now I want to walk you through why 
we must do this. And I understand for a lot of our brothers and sisters 
in this body, this is uncomfortable. This is something that hasn't been 
done in a very long time. So let me walk through sort of a line of 
logic, because you can't be a Member of Congress and go home and do 
townhalls and talk to reporters and say, ``I am going to defend the 
Constitution,'' ``I am going to defend our Article I authority,'' and 
then not stand up and defend it. So let's actually do sort of a linear 
line of logic here.
  If tomorrow one of you became a CEO, 15 years ago this body passed 
something called Sarbanes-Oxley, which basically said, if you are in 
the leadership and someone commits bad acts in your organization, you 
accept the responsibility because you accepted that position of 
leadership. These are the things we require from the real world outside 
this body.
  Has anyone here ever been a real estate broker, had a securities 
license, other types? If bad acts happen underneath your license, what 
happens? You lose your license. You are removed from that position. But 
somehow these rules, this concept of responsibility that this very body 
has put out on the rest of the country, the rest of the private sector, 
is not willing--or is uncomfortable--to demand the very same status of 
responsibility, the very same status of ethics that we require from a 
real estate broker, from corporate executives. We are not going to 
require it from the head of one of the most powerful bureaucracies in 
this Nation?
  And this is to all my brothers and sisters in the body. I accept it 
is uncomfortable doing something you have not done before. That does 
not mean it isn't the right thing to do.
  You have heard the argument made. The facts are crisp and clear. Now 
it is time to make that decision. Are you willing to defend the Article 
I position that this body holds in the Constitution? Are you willing to 
defend the Constitution? Or are you willing to let our representation 
of the American people continue to be trampled on by this 
administration?
  Mr. Jordan, thank you for letting me have the mike.
  Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentleman for his good remarks.
  I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry.)
  Mr. PERRY. I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his leadership, 
bringing this to our attention, and giving us the time to talk about 
it.
  Mr. Speaker, on what we are talking about, we have heard all the 
facts, so I don't want to belabor them. Numerous protective orders, 
subpoenas--literally, a preservation order from his own organization, 
his own agency--the IRS Commissioner just disregarded all that stuff 
and did exactly what he wanted to do in contravention to what any of us 
would do.
  Two standards of justice is what we are talking about, whether it was 
for Lois Lerner, whether it was for John Koskinen, or whether it was 
for Hillary Clinton, two standards of justice: one for them, one for 
the people who are connected; and one for all the rest of us, one for 
the people out there in the real world.
  I remember in my business, when we got a letter from the IRS, ``Oh, 
provide something from 4 years ago,'' we would go to our accountant and 
say, ``Well, we already turned this stuff in. We have submitted this 
stuff.''
  ``Well, you have to save your records for 7 years, and you have got 
to submit that, or you are going to be in trouble.''
  I mean, when you see something from the IRS, your heart stops. Do you 
think Lois Lerner's heart stopped?
  Do you think if the police were looking at you or investigating you 
that you would get to go to the judge without talking to the police and 
say, ``Hey, I will tell you what happened here, but we don't need to 
involve the police in that''? That is what happened here, folks. That 
is what happened, Mr. Speaker.
  Two standards of justice: one for all of us working people out there, 
and one for the connected.
  Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, the facts are very clear. It is 
our duty, it is our requirement under the Constitution, to provide 
justice. And Mr. Koskinen will have his day in court, his due process. 
That is the impeachment process. That is where he can tell his story. 
He will have his day. But the people who have been aggrieved by the 
weaponization of this agency also must have their justice, and it has 
been denied to this point.
  Mr. Speaker, I call for the action that we are talking about.
  Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentleman. He is right on target.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the fine gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).
  Mr. DAVIDSON. I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to address 
this body. It is an honor to be here tonight, but it is a sad time to 
be here talking on this topic.
  Mr. Speaker, as the newest guy here, I am still figuring out a lot of 
things. So maybe for anybody who is thinking about this from home, this 
IRS scandal has been going on since 2010. The first evidence of 
targeting was 6 years ago. A lot of people say: Why are you guys still 
looking into this? Why has it taken so long to get to this? Congress 
has looked into it since 2013. It has been here for a long time. And 
what we see here is an act of frustration, of frustration with a system 
that our own body is having a hard time working. A lot of us would like 
to see this go through the Judiciary Committee, go through a different 
standard process, but that process has continued to stall, delay, and 
not happen.

                              {time}  2015

  I think we owe it to the people who sent us here to do what we said 
we would do, which is to support and defend our Constitution.
  If this body can be ignored, if we can have people come and give 
inaccurate testimony, if we can have subpoenas ignored, if we can have 
evidence destroyed, then, as George Will wrote, we risk being 
completely irrelevant.
  This is the dilemma: this isn't just the IRS that has done this. This 
is the email scandal from the State Department. I remember the shock of 
the CNN anchor saying ``the BlackBerrys are destroyed.'' Fact check 
that. You just can't believe that these kind of things are going on.
  I serve on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee where orders 
to report data breaches have occurred over and over, and inaccurate 
testimony is given. Subpoenas are being ignored by Attorneys General 
for evidence involving cases that are intended to stifle scientific 
research.
  When Congress is acting, the word is on the street: You can ignore 
these requests. You don't have to respond to subpoenas. You can destroy 
evidence, and you can always give inaccurate testimony. Nothing is 
going to happen.
  So it is time we do take action. I hope we consider a course that 
keeps our IRS Commissioner accountable and also sets an example that, 
when Congress takes action, it should be taken seriously.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________