The Abuse of Power by the IRS

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLORES. Mr. Speaker, thank you for the recognition. This evening, I would like to lead the discussion about the blatant abuse of power by the Internal Revenue Service, specifically regarding its targeting of Americans because of their political beliefs.

In early 2012, the Waco Tea Party contacted me to express concern about overly onerous information requests regarding their request to become a 501(c)(4) organization. I subsequently contacted the IRS to get answers, and I also contacted the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to inform them of the situation that I had been made aware of. Unfortunately, following my inquiry into the IRS, the issue did not go away and, in fact, it got worse. I began to learn that this targeting was wide and spread throughout the country.

In April of 2012, I, along with 62 of my House colleagues, sent a letter to then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman requesting a response as to why the IRS was targeting and intimidating conservative groups. We received a basic, nonresponsive letter from the IRS that outlined how applications are processed and that in no way answered our questions on the targeting and the onerous questioning of the grassroots groups.

On May 10, 2013, just a little over a year later, the IRS officially apologized for inappropriately targeting conservative groups like the Waco Tea Party. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee started and continued to conduct hearings into this targeting of conservative groups.

News reports would go on to reveal that senior IRS personnel knew about this practice as far back as 2011, directly contradicting earlier testimony of senior IRS personnel, who claimed that they did not know of these practices. I, along with my colleagues here on the House floor tonight, are far from satisfied with just an apology.

We have several letters from groups that we are going to share with you tonight. This needless and abusive targeting has burdened many conservative groups throughout the country. I have invited several of my colleagues to come to the House floor and to join me as we bring back to the forefront this blatant abuse of power from the IRS on conservative groups. Tonight, I would like to present the injustice that has been done by reading letters to Congress from these targeted groups that go into detail about their experiences.

The first letter is from a group in my district, Texas District 17. It is the Waco Tea Party. Here is what their letter says:

We are writing to you to explain to you and to your colleagues what it is like to be targeted by the government via the Internal Revenue Service. We are not writing to explain the facts and details--that is all a matter for public record and the courts--but rather to explain what happens to United States citizens who simply exercise their rights under the law.

When we began the Waco Tea Party, we were regular Americans who spoke out about being taxed enough already. We weren't political operatives or politicians. For the most part, we were new to the world of politics. We were naive. We believed our government had problems, but we didn't realize that it would target citizens for their political beliefs, that it would put us on a ``be on the lookout,'' or BOLO, list, for short, for using the words ``Tea Party'' in our name; that some Members of Congress would write to the IRS and demand action against us because we held a different position on policy.

We weren't targeted because we broke the law; we were targeted because we were compliant with the law. We weren't targeted because we spoke out; we were targeted because our viewpoints weren't acceptable to government bureaucrats at the IRS. The law was wrongly used against us in an attempt to shut us out and to shut us up.

The toll this IRS targeting is taking on our lives is immeasurable. The financial burden on our small grassroots group has been staggering, requiring many of us to dip into our household budgets to cover expenses, the sleepless nights worrying about what would happen if we couldn't find someone to help us, the emotional stress of explaining to your spouse, your children, family, and friends why you have to miss a special event or special day because we had to work on inane and intrusive demands by the IRS, questions that had nothing to do with our application but were instead used as a weapon of intimidation.

The countless nights that we have laid in our bed not able to sleep, the times that we quietly cried into a pillow because we don't want our spouse to know how scared we are, or the isolation we have felt because of how the media and even some Members of Congress have demonized us, none of this matters to an agent of the government. We are not seen as people. We deeply love our country. We are patriotic, and we are dedicated to preserving our birthrights guaranteed by the Constitution and passing them on to the next generation.

Our grandfathers, fathers, and others fought wars against countries that use government to squelch freedom and liberty of their citizens, only to find that out our own government was now engaging in these tactics. We are not ashamed of our country, but we are disgusted with our government and those who condone the IRS tactics.

We implore you to act to preserve political speech, free speech, to hold people accountable for what they have done to the American citizens. We pray that you and your colleagues will act to restrain government, punish those who were responsible, and restore our First Amendment rights to what the Founders intended.

Sincerely, Toby Marie Walker, Carol Waddell, Becky Kodrin, and Bobby Keith, Waco Tea Party members, supporters and volunteers.

Mr. Speaker, as I told you, there are several letters

we have to share tonight. The next person I would like to invite to speak is Randy Weber from Texas District 14, and he will share what some of his constituents have written to him.

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Mr. FLORES. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of Mr. Gohmert. I think he raises an issue that all Americans rightly need to be concerned about, and that is the invasion of our privacy that we expect to have under our Constitution when you have an IRS that is looking into your personal records.

Mr. Speaker, I did get a letter from the IRS about 6 weeks after I wrote my letter to them demanding an answer for what they were doing to the Waco Tea Party. So I think they are targeting everybody. They don't care who they target. It seems like they are on a mission to try to squelch opposition to this administration's policies.

I would now like to yield to a brand-new freshman Member from Florida. Mr. DeSantis from Florida's Sixth District is going to share some stories about what his constituents have experienced with the IRS.

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Mr. FLORES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for that heartfelt testimony today. I would also like to thank him for his years of service in the United States Navy and as a current member of the United States Naval Reserve. We appreciate having people like this that serve our country.

It is a shame that Americans who serve their country, whether they are in Congress or just a member of a local Tea Party, are targeted because of the fact that they are concerned about what is happening in Washington, what is happening from an administration or from the nameless, faceless bureaucrats that you heard of a few minutes ago.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time we have left?

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Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have, as I told you at the outset of this conversation, many letters that we received from folks all over this country. And I am not going to read all these letters, but I am going include some of them in the Record of tonight's proceedings.

One letter is from Amen, or Abortion Must End Now, that talks about how they were targeted. The Greenwich Tea Party Patriots of South Jersey wrote in about how they were targeted and the IRS treated them.

You heard Mr. DeSantis from Florida talk about the First Coast Tea Party and how they were targeted, so their letter is going to be part of the Record. The Hawaii Tea Party writes in and talks about their experiences with the IRS. The Kentucky 9/12 Project has written in to talk about what they experienced.

The Manassas Tea Party next door in Virginia has written in to talk about how long it took for them to have their application reviewed and how they were bullied and insulted.

You heard Mr. Lankford talk about the OK Tea Party and Patriots in Action Association. The Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now, or PECAN for short, in California, we got a letter from them. The Roane County Tea Party from Tennessee, we have got a letter from them.

We also have a letter from the San Fernando Valley Patriots in California that talks about the IRS treatment and the abuse. Actually, this one is sort of interesting because it has a poem, so I am going to read this one.

Again, this is from the San Fernando Valley Patriots in California. This letter starts with a poem entitled, ``Our Grassroots Voice,'' by Karen Kenney, coordinator, San Fernando Valley Patriots:

The faces of the San Fernando Valley Patriots are different from our voice.

We are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, but patriots all.

We speak as one with a love of God and country.

But our voice is a whisper against the roar that is this government.

We began as a ``tea party'' group in May 2009 near Los Angeles; born from the tax burdens within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A government too big, makes each citizen small, we thought. The First Amendment would offer a platform for us to speak politically, but we were wrong. Our government unsheathed its sword: the IRS.

The IRS did what tyranny does: threaten and control. The questionnaires sent to us were consuming; their intent to test our resolve.

But liberty prefers to stand and be heard.

We held more than 85 events in 2 years, but donations dropped and costs rose. We could afford fewer speakers, rallies, and handouts.

In July 2012, we withdrew our application for tax-exempt status with the IRS after 20 months of delays and grueling red tape.

We must now pay nonprofit taxes in California. The minimum is $800 annually.

We have little money, but more people.

On June 4, 2013, the Ways and Means Committee heard our voice.

Now, our voice is stronger and more hear it. God bless America.

And here is their letter:

On June 4, 2013, we told our story to the Ways and Means Committee. We did not plead the Fifth. We did not hide the facts. We did not lie. Our voice rose against the tyranny that is the IRS scandal. We told the truth of how a government too big makes each citizen small. We told the truth of abuse of power by the fist of a grinding bureaucracy.

We spoke of demand-and-delay tactics that cut our funds and public face. The IRS kept pounding, and we stopped our application for tax relief. But we did not stop meeting, teaching, and talking about the Constitution.

Now we have fewer speakers, fewer rallies, and fewer resources. But our resolve is undaunted. You see, we stand firmly with the First Amendment, not the Fifth.

God bless this Nation. God bless its people. God bless our liberty.

Karen Kenney, San Fernando Valley Patriots.

We have a letter from the Shelby County Liberty in

Ohio. We have the Unite in Action from Nashville, Tennessee. We have the Wetumpka Tea Party from Alabama, who wrote in about their treatment at the hands of an overreaching IRS.

The Liberty Township Tea Party from Ohio has written in. The Richmond Tea Party, again, from next door in Virginia, has a letter that they want Americans to know about. The Rochester Tea Party Patriots in Minnesota, and the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots in Arizona have written in.

On our Web site at flores.house.gov we have a timetable of when the IRS started this and what processes they went through and the lies that were told to the American people about what they were doing. And then we also had some testimony about when they came clean and when IRS officials started to resign. So it would be fascinating for Americans to be able to see that.

Mr. Speaker, the IRS is supposed to enforce our tax laws with integrity and fairness. Yet here we are, 6 months later, and the Obama administration has done nothing more than to try and ride out the storm without taking action.

Lois Lerner and Doug Shulman have resigned from the IRS. However, they are still entitled to live the rest of their lives living on the backs of the hardworking American taxpayers that they abused when they were with the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, folks like Lerner and Shulman should never be allowed to get away with behavior like this and to get on Federal retirement. The IRS must stop targeting certain individuals and groups for partisan reasons. It is time that the administration gives Congress the information that we have requested over and over and over again so that the American people will know the facts and so that they will know that these practices are no longer being done. Americans deserve and demand transparency from government agencies, and they deserve compliance with law and with the Constitution.

My colleagues and I remain committed to finding answers and to putting a stop to this injustice. Mr. Speaker, I would like for every Federal bureaucrat who has tried to abuse the American people to have to submit their testimony with this same language that they requested from these everyday Americans who were just trying to stand up and exercise their First Amendment rights. I would like them to say:

Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this information, including the accompanying documents, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the information that all the relevant facts relating to the request for information and such facts are true, correct and complete.

This is what Lois Lerner should have had to provide, not plead the Fifth. As I said before, my colleagues and I remain committed to finding answers and to putting a stop to this injustice.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing us to bring this issue back to the forefront as we continue to look for answers and demand action. We will reassure the American public that the IRS and other Federal agencies will not scrutinize individuals and groups for political or ideological party reasons.

I also submit for the Record the letters that we received tonight.

I would ask that all Americans tonight continue to pray for their country during these difficult times for our military men and women and for our first responders.

I will close by saying, God bless America.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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