Date: 2015-06-15
Speaker: JODY B. HICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from North Carolina. Mr. Speaker. I continue to be just astounded at the lack of accountability and transparency surrounding the scandal with the IRS as it relates to conservative groups and the targeting that the IRS had towards those groups. It is absolutely unacceptable that we have waited now for over 2 years to get answers to this scandal and the targeting of conservative groups. Right at the epicenter of all of that is Lois Lerner. We requested emails some 2 years ago and only right now. 2 years later. some of these requests for emails are coming to light. These documents and communications requested should have been brought forth long ago. In fact. we are at the time now in this investigation. we are at the point now that I believe we need to seriously question the process by which Congress requests for information from the IRS are being handled by the IRS. One example. Mr. Speaker. in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. where I have the distinct honor of serving. it came to light in that committee that the IRS actually formed a special project team in order to deal with the Lois Lerner investigation. According to testimony by Ms. Mary Howard. who is the Director of the Privacy. Governmental Liaison and Disclosure for the IRS. according to her testimony. all congressional subpoenas. requests for information. Freedom of Information Act requests. and other investigative requests were directed to this special group. this special project team. rather than going through the normal process of investigations that other similar investigations might go through. According to her testimony. Mr. Speaker. these requests were handled primarily by the IRS Commissioner and the IRS Office of Chief Council rather than the normal process. In other words. this special project team handled the issue with Lois Lerner differently than they handle other similar investigations. Ms. Howards testimony further revealed that the IRS. on numerous occasions. went away from the standard way of dealing with freedom of information requests and. if her testimony is true. the handling of the FOIA requests not only for Ms. Lois Lerner. but for other 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations. and may have gone beyond what is even permissible under the Freedom of Information Act. Following her testimony. Chairmen CHAFFETZ and JORDAN sent a letter to the IRS Commissioner. John Koskinen. requesting more information so that the Oversight Committee could better understand the process that they used in dealing with Ms. Lois Lerner. And I am told that. even as recently as this past Friday. the letter received back from the IRS is totally inadequate. It does not answer the questions. and here we are still years removed from it. Mr. Speaker. it is extremely frustrating that now. 2 years later. we are still dealing with this issue. It is frustrating that in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee we are still dealing with the deplorable activities of how the IRS has been handling this. It is up to Congress. We must continue pushing forward for increased accountability and transparency in all areas of our government. particularly as it relates to this with the IRS. I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina.