Protecting Taxpayers From Intrusive IRS Requests Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Coming from the same and neighboring communities and State as my colleague, we agree on many things. We all agree that the Internal Revenue Service should not ask about your religious, political, or social beliefs in determining your taxpayer status. That is different, however, from asking you about your political activities, which was at the root of the Internal Revenue Service's mismanagement of the 501(c)(4) applications.
The IRS did the right thing in trying to group together applications by activity, but they were wrong in using party names and labels from both Democrats and Republicans in their organizational process.
The division that was the subject of the May 2013 TIGTA report was grossly mismanaged in that it allowed these applications to be selected by name and then allowed them to sit for an inordinate length of time. Swift corrective action was taken to remove the
ineffective management, and the subsequent IRS leadership has put the agency on the right path to restoring the public trust.
There has never been any evidence of political motivation or influence from anyone either inside or outside the IRS. Treasury's inspector general repeatedly testified that he found no evidence of political motivation in the selection of processing of tax exemption applications that were the subject of his report. Indeed, an extensive review of 5,500 employee emails by the TIGTA Office of Investigations concluded that there was no political motivation in trying to group these applications.
At the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, what we saw was a small division of a very large agency that struggled to determine how to handle tax-exempt applications from politically motivated groups. Consequently, they allowed those applications to sit for an inordinate amount of time while it tried to determine what criteria to use to judge who determined tax-exempt status.
We also had a flawed TIGTA report that deliberately removed any reference to Progressive and Democratic groups from the criteria the IRS actually used to group applications together and consequently presented a one-sided and partisan conclusion about this issue to Congress.
What we do not have is any evidence of political motivation in the processing of tax exemption applications or any evidence of outside influence in the selection or processing of tax exemption applications.
Mr. Speaker, I think enough is enough. It is time for us to move on to processing issues like extending long-term unemployment insurance benefits, raising the minimum wage, and fixing our immigration laws. Let us give the American people some confidence that their Congress can debate and pass bills on these important issues.
Yes, there was activity that took place which is unacceptable. The individuals have been removed from those positions. Let us take the Internal Revenue Service and move it on to higher heights, giving the American people that each and every citizen is treated fairly, with respect, and with the dignity that all of us deserve as citizens of this great Nation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
You know, I think with the IRS, we are, like, approaching a fork in the middle of the road and we have choices that we can make.
We now have new leadership. The agency has been sanitized. The individuals with culpability are no longer there. They no longer play in any leadership roles at all.
The new Commissioner has given us every assurance, and he comes to the IRS with an impeccable record from both public and private activity, and has given every assurance that can be given that he is going to take that road that leads to the highest level of integrity, that we can bank on the Internal Revenue Service being as fair as fair can be.
I like to believe that he means what he says, and that he says what he means. So I am confident that we have a new IRS, and we will see it function with a new light, a new spirit, and a new direction.
So I thank my colleague. I have no further requests for time.
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