[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11034]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       IRS ``LOST DATA'' SCANDAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Collins of New York). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bentivolio) for 15 minutes.
  Mr. BENTIVOLIO. Mr. Speaker, last week, we learned the IRS--the most 
powerful and intimidating Federal agency in existence and the agency 
now working to monitor our health care--has ``lost'' over 2 years of 
emails from at least six employees.
  In a master stroke of unluckiness, the IRS claims that the only 
computer systems impacted are those belonging to top senior officials 
connected to the targeting of Americans who held conservative political 
beliefs--beliefs like the notion that the First Amendment should always 
be protected in order to have a lasting, free democracy.
  Nothing is ever this convenient.
  Mr. Speaker, are we to believe the same entity that can turn the 
lives of Americans upside down and that can demand 7 years of financial 
and personal records just ``lost'' 2 years of data from its own 
employees?
  Mr. Speaker, what would happen to your constituents, to my 
constituents or to any of our constituents--Democrats, Republicans or 
Independents--if they were investigated by the IRS and ``lost'' 2 years 
of data? Do you think the IRS would simply say, ``That's okay. I am 
sure it was an accident. These things happen. We will drop our 
investigation now''? Of course not. Yet that is what the IRS is telling 
Congress. ``Oh, sorry. We lost our data. Oh, well. Let's move on.''
  Mr. Speaker, how can we as Representatives tell our constituents to 
cooperate with an entity that refuses to cooperate with Congress? How 
can I tell my constituents to hand over personal information about 
their lives to the IRS when the IRS won't do the same?
  I will conclude with a simple question to my friends across the 
aisle: Have you no shame? Your entire political outlook is based on the 
idea that government can work in an unbiased and effective way. Yet, 
when it becomes fairly clear that something isn't quite proper at the 
most powerful agency in the United States, you simply obscure the 
investigation instead of joining us in the call for a special 
prosecutor.
  When it becomes clear that ordinary citizens who are engaging in 
their natural rights were targeted by a major officer at the IRS and 
when that official tries to take the Fifth Amendment to put up 
roadblocks to an investigation, you simply play politics. You are 
worried about poll numbers rather than the Republic.
  I recently asked the current IRS Commissioner whether or not he 
believed that IRS workers could remain objective towards a group of 
American citizens who believes that the IRS should be disbanded. He was 
confounded by the question before answering that they were 
professionals. I have no doubt that the people at the IRS are 
professionals. The way they attacked conservative groups could only 
have been done by professionals.
  Let me open my question to all of my friends from across the aisle: 
As members of the party of government, do you believe that any person 
can sustain objectivity towards someone one perceives as a threat to 
one's livelihood?
  If you believe the answer is ``yes,'' then join me in calling for a 
special prosecutor to help us find the truth. Prove your beliefs with 
action. Defend your ideas that government can be involved in most 
aspects of our lives by proving that nothing criminal happened at the 
IRS. Show the American people that bureaucrats can remain objective in 
the face of someone's telling them that their jobs shouldn't exist.
  Mr. Speaker, our number one job here in Congress is to protect the 
rights of the people, not to take them away. It is time for everyone in 
this Chamber to remember that.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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