Appointment of Special Counsel to Investigate Internal Revenue Service

Floor Speech

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Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Thank you to my colleague.

Mr. Speaker, Federal law clearly states that tax-exempt social welfare groups must exclusively promote social welfare, and yet the IRS continues to allow these groups to engage in partisan political activity, instead of in their social welfare missions.

This has allowed social welfare nonprofits to spend over a quarter of a billion dollars on partisan political activities while keeping their donors secret. Congress has known about this issue for years, and it has done absolutely nothing.

Mr. Speaker, I came to Congress to solve problems on behalf of the American people, and this resolution does absolutely nothing to solve the underlying problem that we have identified at the IRS.

As long as Congress continues to ignore the fact that social welfare organizations are actively engaged in political activity, social welfare groups will continue spending hundreds of millions of dollars on partisan political campaign activities in direct contradiction to current Federal law and congressional intent.

So I urge my colleagues to vote against this very partisan resolution, as it doesn't solve any underlying problems, and, instead, pass legislation that enforces Federal law and that prohibits tax-exempt social welfare groups from engaging in partisan political activity.

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