IV 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 737 
Condemning and censuring John A. Koskinen, the Commissioner of Internal 
Revenue. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 18, 2016 
Mr. CHAFFETZ submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Over-
sight and Government Reform and Ways and Means, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
RESOLUTION 
Condemning and censuring John A. Koskinen, the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue. 
Whereas the Committee on Oversight and Government Re-
form issued a subpoena to John A. Koskinen, Commis-
sioner, Internal Revenue Service, on February 14, 2014, 
which compelled him to produce, among other things, ‘‘all 
communications sent or received by Lois Lerner, from 
January 1, 2009, to August 2, 2013.’’; 
Whereas, on March 4, 2014, Internal Revenue Service em-
ployees in Martinsburg, West Virginia, magnetically 
erased 422 backup tapes, destroying as many as 24,000 
of Lois Lerner’s emails responsive to the subpoena; 
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•HRES 737 IH 
Whereas Commissioner Koskinen violated a congressional 
subpoena by failing to locate and preserve relevant 
records and by losing key pieces of evidence that were in 
the agency’s possession, and destroyed, on his watch; 
Whereas Commissioner Koskinen betrayed the trust and con-
fidence of the American people as an Officer of the 
United States; 
Whereas Commissioner Koskinen failed to live up to the 
promise he made to the Senate Committee on Finance 
during his confirmation hearing to: ‘‘Be transparent 
about any problems we run into; and the public and cer-
tainly this committee will know about those problems as 
soon as we do.’’; 
Whereas, as early as February 2014, and no later than April 
2014, Commissioner Koskinen was aware that a substan-
tial portion of Lois Lerner’s emails were missing and 
could not be produced to Congress, but did not notify 
Congress of any problem until June 13, 2014, when he 
included the information on the fifth page of the third 
enclosure of a letter to the Senate Committee on Fi-
nance; 
Whereas Commissioner Koskinen offered under oath a series 
of false and misleading statements utterly lacking in hon-
esty and integrity; 
Whereas, on March 26, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen was 
asked during a hearing before the Committee on Over-
sight and Government Reform, ‘‘Sir, are you or are you 
not going to provide this committee all of Lois Lerner’s 
emails?’’ and he falsely answered, ‘‘Yes, we will do that.’’; 
Whereas, on June 20, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen testified 
falsely that ‘‘since the start of this investigation, every 
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•HRES 737 IH 
email has been preserved. Nothing has been lost. Nothing 
has been destroyed.’’; 
Whereas, on June 20, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen testified 
falsely that the Internal Revenue Service had ‘‘confirmed 
that backup tapes from 2011 no longer existed because 
they have been recycled, pursuant to the Internal Rev-
enue Service normal policy’’ and that ‘‘confirmed means 
that somebody went back and looked and made sure that 
in fact any backup tapes that had existed had been recy-
cled.’’; 
Whereas, on June 20, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen testified 
that the Internal Revenue Service had ‘‘gone to great 
lengths’’ to retrieve all of Lois Lerner’s emails, but in 
fact failed to search disaster backup tapes, Lois Lerner’s 
Blackberry, the email server, backup tapes for the email 
server, and Lois Lerner’s temporary replacement laptop, 
which the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Adminis-
tration subsequently found to contain more than 1,000 of 
Lerner’s emails; 
Whereas Commissioner Koskinen’s false statements delayed 
and otherwise interfered with congressional investigations 
into the Internal Revenue Service targeting of Americans 
based on their political affiliation; and 
Whereas the aforementioned conduct of Commissioner 
Koskinen caused the House of Representatives to lose 
confidence in his ability to administer and supervise the 
execution and application of the internal revenue laws: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That— 
(1) the House of Representatives does hereby 
censure and condemn John A. Koskinen for a pat-
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tern of conduct while Commissioner of Internal Rev-
enue that is incompatible with his duties and incon-
sistent with the trust and confidence placed in him 
as an officer of the United States; and 
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representa-
tives that John A. Koskinen, Commissioner of Inter-
nal Revenue, should— 
(A) immediately resign from office, and if 
he does not so resign, the President should re-
move him from office; and 
(B) be required to forfeit all rights to any 
annuity for which he is eligible under chapter 
83 or chapter 84 of title 5, United States Code. 
Æ 
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