[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9359-9360]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          IRS RESPONSE LETTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss the IRS response 
letter that was sent to me and 51 of my colleagues asking for an 
investigation of the Clinton Foundation's tax-exempt status.
  Now, the IRS responded to us with a letter. It is dated May 21. What 
we received back, Mr. Speaker, from the IRS was simply a form letter. 
It was addressed, ``Dear Sir or Madam,'' not even my name. The director 
of the
Exempt Organizations Examinations didn't even take the time to sign the 
letter.
  What we have is this: the IRS has so little respect for Members of 
Congress who are asking a question, who are seeking clarity on behalf 
of their constituents, that they respond to a congressional inquiry 
with a letter that is a form letter, not even signed. Well, you can 
imagine that we were a little bit surprised by this.
  I think it is important to talk about why we were asking for clarity 
on the Clinton Foundation and their tax-exempt status. We all have 
501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations that do great work in our 
communities. Many of these organizations had come to us--their Member 
of Congress--and said: What do you know about how the Clinton 
Foundation works? What about these foreign donations that are coming 
into the Clinton Foundation?
  We were continuing to look at this because when you go to 
charitynavigator.org, which many of our colleagues or our constituents 
would do, and you pull up, you enter in the search engine ``the Bill, 
Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation,'' what comes up is this:

       We don't evaluate Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton 
     Foundation. Why not? We have determined that this charity's 
     atypical business model cannot be accurately captured in our 
     current rating methodology.

  How interesting is that; how very interesting. The American people 
are wanting to know how this charity keeps a not-for-profit status and 
how they conduct business. It is appropriate that we write the IRS and 
ask for clarity on this situation, doing it on behalf of our 
constituents who are seeking answers to questions.
  Now, I have to tell you, we know that there is no shortage of pens in 
the executive branch of this government. The

[[Page 9360]]

President has said he has got a pen and a phone and he will work around 
Congress if he needs to. We understand that.
  We know they have pens over at the IRS. We know that they have just 
chosen to dismiss what we have asked for, which is clarity. We have a 
divided government; we have a system of checks and balances, and we do 
expect to have a response from the IRS that addresses the structure of 
this organization.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to continue to follow this issue. We have 
found it quite amusing that this is how they would choose to address 
the inquiry and that this is the attitude that they are taking.

         Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Tax 
           Exempt and Government Entities Division,
                                                     May 21, 2015.
     Hon. Marsha Blackburn,
     House of Representatives.
       Dear Sir or Madam: Thank you for the information you 
     submitted regarding The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton 
     Foundation. The Internal Revenue Service has an ongoing 
     examination program to ensure that exempt organizations 
     comply with the applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue 
     Code. The information you submitted will be considered in 
     this program.
       Internal Revenue Code section 6103 protects the privacy of 
     tax returns and tax return information of all taxpayers. 
     Therefore, we cannot disclose the status of any 
     investigation. If, at a later date, you have additional 
     information that you believe is relevant to this matter, 
     please attach a copy of this letter to the information and 
     send it to the address shown above.
       We appreciate your concern in bringing this matter to our 
     attention. If you have additional questions, please call 
     Customer Account Services.
           Sincerely,

                                          Margaret Von Lienen,

                                   Director, Exempt Organizations:
     Examinations.

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