Appointment of Special Counsel to Investigate Internal Revenue Service

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DEUTCH. I thank my friend, the gentlelady from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, we have learned a great deal, since the allegations surfaced, that IRS officials discriminated against political-leaning groups that were seeking tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status. I joined with many of my Republican colleagues in condemning the notion that politics in any way influenced the behavior of the IRS.

We learned that the IRS kept a list of key words that triggered extra review, a misguided practice that we are grateful has since stopped. We also learned that the IRS targeted more liberal-leaning groups than conservative ones, meaning there was no conservative witch-hunt.

What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have apparently failed to learn, however, is that the clear solution to this problem is to get the IRS out of the business of evaluating political conduct.

I wholeheartedly agree with my colleagues that the IRS has no business meddling in our elections, but we don't need a special counsel to make this stop.

Applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status exploded after the Citizens United decision because special interests found a new way to secretly funnel money into our elections. Let me tell you how it works.

Because these groups aren't required to disclose their donors, wealthy special interests that are bent on influencing the political process for their benefit anonymously give to the 501(c)(4). The 501(c)(4) then funnels the money to the super-PAC; and, voila, there are millions of secret dollars influencing our elections.

We ought to be working together in a bipartisan way to get secret money out of our elections. I asked the Treasury Department to review the murky regulations on the books, to revise the rules to restore integrity to 501(c)(4) status and to ensure that taxpayers are never again forced to subsidize blatant political behavior.

I would have hoped that my colleagues in the majority would have joined me in that effort. Instead, Republican leaders responded by attempting to block Treasury from fixing these broken rules and from forcing these secret givers to tell us who they are and what they want from this Congress.

I am afraid there is only one explanation for this latest partisan resolution. I hope I am wrong. I hope I am wrong in that my Republican colleagues don't actually want to protect secret money in our elections. I hope I am wrong in that the GOP does not want to protect the billionaires and the corporations that want to conceal themselves from the American people and believe that they have the right to funnel millions of dollars through 501(c)(4)'s into super-PACs in order to corrupt our elections.

I ask my colleagues to prove me wrong. Prove me wrong by working in a bipartisan way to protect the American people from helping sham special interest groups influence elections on the taxpayers' dime. Let's bring transparency and accountability back to our elections. Reject this sham resolution, and prove me wrong.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source