Protecting free speech and reining in IRS abuse

Dear Friends,

The House passed an important bill this week to strip the IRS of a tool the agency used to harass nonprofit and charitable groups and threaten First Amendment Rights.

The Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act prohibits the IRS from requiring tax-exempt organizations to report names, addresses and other identifying information of any contributor.

Such information is supposed to be confidential, but has been leaked. In 2012, for example, information about contributors to the National Organization of Marriage was provided to the liberal Huffington Post. The IRS subsequently paid $50,000 to settle a lawsuit for unauthorized release of the organization’s tax return.

In 2013 we learned the IRS retaliated against conservative groups by delaying applications for tax-exempt status and burying applicants with burdensome information requests. The scandal prompted the resignation of IRS official Lois Lerner and an ongoing congressional investigation into the destruction of evidence sought by congressional subpoena.

Last month, pressured by the courts, the IRS finally produced a list of 426 targeted groups. They include Tea Party Patriots of North Idaho, the Idaho Rights Foundation, Montana’s Clark Fork Tea Party and Balanced Budget Amendment Now – groups fighting for freedom, property rights and fiscal responsibility.

The IRS scandal is eerily similar to Watergate. In both cases the executive branch used its substantial powers to persecute political enemies in an attempt to suppress freedom of speech. But there’s a significant difference: With Watergate we had the tapes; with the IRS the evidence has been destroyed.

Last month, I participated in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the IRS abuses. We’ll reconvene next week to continue our inquiry into document destruction and the failure of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to inform Congress in a timely fashion that Lerner’s emails were missing.

Koskinen has made false statements during sworn congressional testimony. My aim is to get Commissioner Koskinen to answer the same vital question asked about President Nixon’s cover-up: What did he know and when did he know it?

Our country has flourished thanks to the separation of powers, which requires Congress to conduct oversight of the executive branch.

Protecting our constitutional rights from attack by the IRS and any other arm of the government is a duty of the highest importance.

n U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador (R)

District 1

1523 Longworth Building

Washington, DC 20515-1201

(202) 225-6611

1250 Ironwood Drive, Suite 243

Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814

(208) 667-0127

www.labrador.house.gov

Email: https://labrador.house.gov/contact-me/