[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6728-6729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             IRS ACTIVITIES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the past few days we have heard 
many in the media talk about how this has been a ``rough week'' for the 
administration. That is because it has been a worse week for the First 
Amendment.
  On Friday we learned that--just as we had been told by our 
constituents--the IRS deliberately targeted conservative groups across 
the country in the midst of a heated national election. Over the 
weekend we learned that the extent of it was even broader--even 
broader--than we originally thought. Then this morning we all learned 
the targeting wasn't limited to an IRS office out of Cincinnati, as the 
administration suggested last week, but that it reached all the way to 
the IRS headquarters right here in Washington.
  What we don't know at this point is whether it jumped the fence from 
the IRS to the White House. But we do know this: We can't count on the 
administration to be forthcoming about the details of this scandal 
because so far they have been anything but. So this morning I am 
calling on the President to make available completely and without 
restriction everyone--everyone--who can answer the questions we have as 
to what has been going on at the IRS, who knew about it, and how high 
it went--no stonewalling, no more incomplete answers, no more 
misleading responses, no holding back witnesses no matter how senior 
their current or former positions. We need full transparency and we 
need full cooperation.
  The American people deserve answers. The answers the IRS has now 
owned up to and that were uncovered by their own inspector general are 
an outrage--an absolute outrage. We now know the IRS targeted groups 
for using such terminology as--get this--``we the people'' and for 
educating folks about the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
  I mean, you can't make this stuff up.
  What is also clear is that government officials repeatedly failed to 
own up to what they knew was going on--when it turns out they'd known 
about it since at least the middle of 2011.
  So the IRS knew what was happening--yet they continued to give us 
assurances that they were applying the tax rules in a fair and 
impartial way.
  Despite repeated assurances from the Obama administration that it was 
not targeting its political enemies through the IRS during the last 
election cycle, we have now learned that the IRS was in fact singling 
out conservative groups--groups who dared to speak up and express their 
First Amendment rights.
  Let's recap what happened.
  Last March, after receiving multiple claims of unusual harassment by 
the IRS from constituents who wanted to form tax-exempt political 
organizations, I and several of my colleagues sent a letter to then-IRS 
Commissioner Shulman questioning selective enforcement on tax exempt 
organizations.
  Now, we learn, according to the IRS' own Inspector General, that the 
IRS was well aware that this selective treatment was happening at the 
time our letter was sent, and in fact had already acted to correct what 
they later called ``inappropriate'' behavior.
  But there was no mention of that in the IRS initial response.
  Nor was there any mention of this behavior, which was by that time 
well-known within the agency, in a second letter sent back to us in 
September 2012.

[[Page 6729]]

  We had to wait several more months--to wait for a special 
investigator's report that Republicans demanded--in order to find out 
the truth of what was actually happening at the IRS.
  In the coming days we'll learn more, and we'll start getting answers 
to questions like: Was the IRS deliberately misleading Republican 
Senators, or was it betraying profound incompetence? But, as I said, 
the fact is, none of this would have come out if we'd relied on the 
administration's own word and Republicans had not demanded the truth.
  Clearly, we've only started to scratch the surface of this scandal.
  The American people are looking for answers, and I am determined to 
help them get to the bottom of this.
  Last June, I gave a very public speech in which I called out the 
Obama administration for serial abuses of government power in going 
after its political enemies in the middle of a heated national 
election. The left scoffed at the suggestion. The Washington Post said 
my speech was full of ``red herrings.'' The New York Times called my 
argument ``bogus''. Robert Reich called it ``bonkers.''
  Well, you know what we learned last week: these abuses were even more 
widespread than we knew.
  So it is good to see even some of my Democrat colleagues now 
criticizing the IRS for such blatant and thuggish abuse of power. It is 
preferable to the silence--or, worse, encouragement--they have 
demonstrated in the past.
  The Chairman of the Finance Committee was correct in referring to the 
IRS' actions as an ``outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the 
public's trust.'' He's vowed to ``get to the bottom'' of what happened, 
and he's promised that his committee will hold hearings on all this. 
Those hearings should be tough, and they should aim to bring the truth 
to light. But our Democrat friends should also acknowledge their role 
in inculcating this culture of intimidation, due to repeated calls for 
increased IRS scrutiny of groups like the very ones that were targeted.
  We owe it to all Americans to get to the bottom of this scandal, hold 
those responsible accountable, and put the proper safeguards in place 
for moving forward. Because, as the President was correct in noting 
yesterday, one day a Republican will inhabit the Oval Office. And when 
he or she does, the left will want to know that they will not be 
harassed for having the audacity to disagree. That an agency like the 
IRS will return to its proper role as a completely non-partisan and 
apolitical institution--not a tool for an administration of one stripe 
to bully and intimidate those who adhere to another.
  But in order for Congress to effectively perform the oversight it 
needs to do, the administration will have to make everyone who can 
answer these questions available expeditiously.
  We have even more questions today than we did last year, and we are 
not going to accept more half-baked responses. We want the full truth 
this time. And we intend to get it. I yield the floor.

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