[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14765-14766]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IRS ACCOUNTABILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Carter) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARTER. Madam Speaker, today, I rise in support of five 
commonsense bills that hold the government accountable to the people it 
was created to serve.
  It is amazing that we have an agency called the Internal Revenue 
Service to which we have surrendered almost unlimited power for the 
purposes of collecting revenues of this country. Arguably, American 
citizens will tell you that the IRS has control over their lives, their 
liberty, and their property, and, some would argue, without due process 
of law.
  You don't tell your taxman: I am not going to answer that question, I 
am going to take the Fifth, because immediately he will seize your 
property.
  Yet we witnessed on television--as we found out--that the IRS was 
being looked into for being incompetent and corrupt and maybe the most 
incompetent and corrupt Federal agency in the country, and that they 
were actually out investigating groups who were voicing their absolute 
constitutional right to express their opinion in the political arena 
and the right to gather and meet, which is guaranteed by the 
Constitution.
  But, no, the first thing we get from the person in charge is: I am 
going to take the Fifth Amendment. As many can see, we have been 
battling in the committee process in Congress over and over with the 
IRS. They have abused our tax system to target conservative political 
organizations, and this abuse has to be stopped and they have to be 
held responsible. Of course, when we actually have someone that we see 
is responsible, the quick solution for the IRS is transfer them 
someplace else.
  Well, I am proud the House has taken action to curb the power of the 
IRS by streamlining the removal of Federal bureaucrats who engage in 
misconduct or destroy Federal records. In front of a Federal District 
Court, you just try shredding records that a court has ordered you to 
bring before them and see what that Federal judge will do to you.
  We are also voting to prohibit the IRS officials from using personal 
email to conduct official business, putting fairness back into the 
appeals process, and ensuring taxpayers know the status of IRS 
investigations. This is not much to ask. Just tell us what is going on.
  These bills are important steps toward a level of accountability the 
Obama administration has been unwilling to take. This is good 
legislation. It sets our bureaucrats straight.

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