[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8693]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           CI REALIGNMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Holding) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLDING. Mr. Speaker, when most folks hear or think about the 
Internal Revenue Service, I am sure they probably think about the April 
15 deadline. Maybe they even think about the prospects of an audit, or, 
in most cases, I imagine people are thinking about and wondering, you 
know, when is their tax refund going to be delivered?

                              {time}  1115

  Or perhaps their minds might jump to the scandals that have plagued 
the IRS, from the targeting of conservative groups to the IRS' failures 
to keep track of employee emails. Whatever the case, Mr. Speaker, I 
don't believe most people would immediately associate the IRS as a 
Federal law enforcement agency. However, the IRS is, in fact, home to 
our Nation's sixth largest law enforcement agency. It is called the IRS 
Criminal Investigation, or CI, for short.
  CI was originally known as the IRS Intelligence division, and it was 
formed in 1919 to combat widespread corruption and organized crime. A 
great example of that from the early days is the investigation and 
conviction of Al Capone.
  Now, today, CI is solely responsible for the enforcement of criminal 
violations of our Nation's tax laws and shares jurisdiction over 
violations of money laundering and bank secrecy laws. In addition, CI 
has also become an indispensable tool used in the investigation of 
terror financing cases and works jointly with many of our other Federal 
law enforcement agencies.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I was a United States attorney for a number of 
years, and I have had the privilege of working with many CI special 
agents and personally know the value of their unmatched financial 
investigatory abilities.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the IRS' mismanagement of CI and their 
inability to prioritize CI's needs has caused a troubling drop in the 
number of CI special agents and staff. This, in turn, has led to a 
reduction in the number of CI's investigations and convictions at a 
time when offenses such as identity theft, money laundering, tax fraud, 
and terror financing are all on the rise.
  These resource decisions, along with an organizational and reporting 
structure at the IRS that is poorly suited to oversee a Federal law 
enforcement agency, have demonstrated that the IRS is ill-equipped to 
effectively support and manage CI.
  Mr. Speaker, simply put, we need to be placing a premium on the 
world-class financial investigations CI carries out each day. This is 
why, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have recently introduced the CI 
Realignment Act. This legislation, which I am pleased is supported by 
the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, will create a new 
Bureau of Criminal Investigation within the Department of the Treasury 
by transferring CI out of the IRS.
  Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, this legislation is about law 
enforcement. It is about the dedicated personnel at CI that work in 
offices across the country and, indeed, across the world.
  While this House will continue to have discussions and consider 
necessary reforms and legislation to right the ship over at the IRS, 
the CI Realignment Act is concerned with creating a clear distinction 
between the civil IRS function and the Federal law enforcement agency 
charged with criminal enforcement of our Nation's laws.
  Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, my legislation will remove CI from the 
bureaucracy of the scandal-ridden IRS and allow for an increased focus 
on law enforcement.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the IRS urgently needs to address their 
shortfalls in many areas, from consumer service to data protection. 
Let's make certain that they do not further impede the critical work of 
our Nation's top financial investigators while they try to figure out 
how to run the IRS.

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