February 26, 2015
“IRS: TIGTA Update”
[AS PREPARED]
The Internal Revenue Service. The IRS
Perhaps no other agency, no other institution in our government causes more fear, more concern, more distress, or outright panic at the mere mention of their name than the IRS.
Entanglement with the IRS is never good. Most
Americans work hard, pay their taxes and just want to live a life free
of harassment.
And most of the IRS employees are good, decent,
hardworking, patriotic civil servants doing a tough job, working for
their government and are honest in their dealings. But not all of them.
Nearly two years ago the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration, often referred to as TIGTA, did an audit that
confirmed what many on this committee had feared and heard; the IRS was
targeting and delaying the applications for 501(c)4 status of
conservative non-profit organizations because of their political
beliefs.
The IRS was on the lookout for applications that:
focused on the national debt, “criticize how the country is run” or
that sought to educate the public on how to “make America a better place
to live.”
These were conservatives trying to play by the rules,
but some in the IRS didn’t want them in the game. They didn’t want them
to have a voice.
When it was first revealed that the IRS was targeting
Americans and suppressing their First Amendment rights because of their
political beliefs, President Obama said this:
“If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of
practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting
conservative groups, then that’s outrageous. And there’s no place for
it.”
“And they have to be held fully accountable. Because
the IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity, and people
have to have confidence that they’re . . . applying the laws in a
nonpartisan way.”
I agreed with the President then. He was exactly
right. But by the time the Superbowl rolled around, before any of the
investigations were complete, the President concluded there was “Not
even a smidgen of corruption.” I have no idea how he came to that
definitive conclusion without all the facts, but he obviously sent a
signal as to how he would like this to be concluded.
On the one hand the President has come to a conclusion
and on the other there is an on-going investigation by the Inspector
General and the Department of Justice.
But Congress has a role.
As the new Chairman of this Committee I thought it
would be appropriate to get an update on the investigation from the
Inspector General.
I want us to focus on the facts, wherever they may
lead us. And thus far, the IRS, and specifically its Commissioner, has
given us a lot of different answers to some fairly simple questions.
The Oversight Committee subpoenaed the IRS in Aug.
2013 seeking emails from Lois Lerner’s, as well as others involved in
the targeting.
Months later we did not have all the Lois Lerner
emails. In an Oversight hearing on March 26, 2014 Commissioner Koskinen
testified under oath he had all the emails and he would produce all the
emails.
Yet on June 13, 2014 the IRS sent a letter to Senate
Finance stating a multi-year tranche of Lois Lerner’s emails had been
destroyed.
June 13, 2014 letter to Senate Finance Committee: “IRS
confirmed the backup tapes from 2011 no longer exist because they have
been recycled pursuant to the IRS normal policy.”
June 20, 2014 before Ways & Means:
Chairman Camp: “Your letter describes the Lois Lerner emails as being unrecoverable.”
Commissioner Koskinen: “Correct”
Feb. 11, 2015 in an Oversight hearing:
Mr. DeSantis: “You’ve made the effort, you were not cavalier about this,
you made the effort to find what the Committee wanted? Mr. Koskinen:
“Yes”
The IRS Commissioner has said they went to “great lengths” and made “extraordinary efforts” to recover the emails.
This is but a small sampling of the Commissioner’s
definitive and precise statements about the missing emails. Yet, I
believe what we will hear this evening is far different than what we
were led to believe.
To the men and women in the Inspector General’s
office, we thank you for the hard work, long days, and we look forward
to ultimately reading your final report.
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