[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6926]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   GOVERNMENT OPPRESSION OF PATRIOTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, early last year, I spoke with 
businesswoman Catherine Engelbrecht, also founder of True the Vote and 
King Street Patriots in Houston, Texas. True the Vote is a nonpartisan 
organization whose purpose is to train poll workers to uphold voter 
integrity at the polls, because, despite what many say, voter fraud is 
rampant in America. King Street Patriots is a group of liberty-minded, 
patriotic individuals in Houston who meet weekly to discuss what's 
going on here in Washington.
  Catherine told me that both of these groups and her family had not 
only been harassed by liberal progressive groups but also by the 
Federal Government. It all began when Catherine applied for nonprofit 
status in 2010 for True the Vote and King Street Patriots. So began the 
tidal wave of government inquiries and harassment.
  In a recent interview, Catherine said this:

       We applied for nonprofit status in 2010. Since that time, 
     the IRS has run us through a gauntlet of analysts and 
     hundreds of questions over and over and over again. They've 
     requested to see each and every tweet I've ever tweeted and 
     each and every Facebook post I've ever posted. They've asked 
     to know every place I've ever spoken since our inception, and 
     to whom, and everywhere I intend to speak in the future.

  We have learned that the IRS has even asked these groups, Mr. 
Speaker, for donor lists.
  Mr. Speaker, this level of detail goes well beyond the business of 
the IRS, and it didn't stop there. The Federal Government's snooping 
included six visits by the FBI, as well as multiple unannounced visits 
from OSHA and, yes, even the ATF. Mr. Speaker, you may remember the 
ATF. Those are the ones responsible for smuggling guns into Mexico. How 
ironic it is they want to audit American citizens but lose track of 
guns where they were purposely sent to the drug cartels.
  In any event, in addition to True the Vote, Catherine and her husband 
were also personally audited. Keep in mind Catherine and her husband 
have owned a small family business for 20 years and have never been 
audited by the IRS until all of this. Why now? It seems very 
coincidental.
  I asked that question when I submitted a FOIA request on behalf of 
True the Vote and King Street Patriots to FBI, OSHA and the ATF asking 
if they were under criminal investigation. The reply from these 
agencies was that none of these individuals were under criminal 
investigation. Well, if they're not, why are they being treated like 
criminals? Just because they question government.
  Mr. Speaker, Catherine is not alone. The IRS has admitted to 
systematically targeting certain groups who have opposing views from 
the administration. According to USA Today, between February 2010 and 
May 2012, only one Tea Party group was granted tax-exempt status from 
the IRS. But during that same 2-year period, the IRS has approved 
dozens of liberal and progressive groups for their tax-exempt status. 
Coincidence? Yeah, right.
  Not only does this behavior of the IRS threaten individual freedom 
and violate the Constitution; I think it may be criminal. It is 
unlawful for any Federal agency to use its law enforcement and its 
investigation power as a means to harass and target certain individuals 
whose political views differ from any administration. It would appear 
that such actions are also in violation of Federal law and the equal 
protection and due process protections guaranteed in the Constitution.
  Private citizens should not be punished for questioning government. 
This is America, not a Third World dictatorship or the Soviet Union.

                              {time}  1050

  This type of government oppression and political opposition is 
disturbing. I've written Attorney General Eric Holder to request him to 
direct the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to investigate any potential 
violation of the Hatch Act that may have occurred by IRS employees. 
I've also asked Attorney General Holder to appoint a special prosecutor 
to investigate all of this.
  No government should be requiring citizens to furnish their 
schedules, donor lists, personal communications or political beliefs to 
any government agency. No government agency--whether it's the IRS, the 
FBI, the ATF, or OSHA--should be used as a tool to suppress those who 
are considered ``opposition groups'' and dare to question our 
government.
  The IRS is abusing its power to tax by harassing and punishing those 
who have been ``taxed enough already.''
  And that's just the way it is.

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