Impeachment of John Koskinen

Floor Speech

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Mr. LOUDERMILK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the subject of justice.

As we look around the Capitol, there are effigies and paintings. Even in this Chamber, there are paintings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, the visionaries of this Nation who envisioned a Nation and a government that was committed to liberty, tempered by law and justice. Their idea of justice was an equal application of the law to everyone, that there weren't two sets of laws--one law for the citizen and a different law for the bureaucrat or the elected official--but all laws were equally applied to every person.

I want to tell you the story of two Johns and how the law doesn't apply equally. The first John is a Mr. John Yates who, in 2007, was fishing for grouper in the Gulf of Mexico when a State conservation officer, who had Federal authority, approached his boat and asked to inspect his catch. Upon the inspection, he found that there were 72 grouper that were suspected to be under the minimum size. He ordered Mr. Yates to return to shore.

Now, Mr. Yates understood that this was not a serious crime, it was actually a civil action, and he could face a fine or he could lose his fishing license, a license issued by the government that he made his living with. But Mr. Yates made a mistake. He made a bad decision, because he ordered those suspect fish to be thrown back into the water. It was a mistake.

But after being punished for what he did wrong, catching small fish, 4 years later, in 2011, Mr. Yates was convicted of a Federal offense of destroying evidence under the Sarbanes-Oxley statutes. He went to jail. He also spent 3 years on a supervised release program for a Federal offense of destroying or tampering with evidence.

When the government wants to seek justice upon a citizen, there are over 4,500 criminal statutes and an endless number of regulations that can be enforced criminally that they can use to find a way to punish you for a deed, regardless of how minor or major it was. But that doesn't always apply to the government itself.

The same year that John Yates was sent to jail for destroying small fish, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena to another John, who was then, and is still, the Commissioner of the IRS, John Koskinen.

They demanded that he provide, under subpoena by the force of law, all of the documents relating to Lois Lerner and the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. However, instead of responding to that subpoena, the IRS destroyed over 24,000 of those documents. But yet, today, Mr. Koskinen is still the Commissioner of the IRS.

There are two types of enforcement of laws in this Nation--one for the citizen and one for the government official. You see, the Sarbanes- Oxley catchall that has been used to successfully prosecute for destruction of cars and weapons, even bodies, as well as documents and evidence, excludes government agencies.

The American people deserve justice. But we do have one tool, and that is the tool of this Congress to impeach those who violate the trust of the American citizens.

Mr. Speaker, I have cosponsored, with the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Resolution 494, which would bring the Commissioner of the IRS before this body on charges of impeachment for violating the trust of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that that resolution be brought forward and be brought forward in this House for a vote so that justice will be served and we can once again restore the confidence of the American people that there is one definition of justice in this Nation, and that is equal application of the law for everyone.

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