Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, yesterday morning I called for the immediate resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller in light of the IRS's admission that it targeted conservative groups for inappropriate scrutiny. While I was willing to give Mr. Miller and other IRS officials the benefit of the doubt until the facts were in, the Treasury Inspector General report released on Tuesday has erased any doubts as to the severity of the misconduct and the blatant incompetence in dealing with the highest levels of the IRS.

I am pleased President Obama chose to heed the call that I made, and others as well, by dismissing Mr. Miller last night. This is a necessary step, but only a first step, toward restoring the credibility and the integrity of the IRS.

This scandal is much larger than any one official within the IRS. Any government official who knew about the misconduct within the IRS and decided not to make this information public should be held accountable. No American taxpayer should ever have to worry that a group they belong to or a view they espouse would subject them to less favorable tax treatment by their government. Yet the IG report has, unfortunately, confirmed this political profiling is exactly what happened.

The misconduct by the IRS is troubling for a host of reasons, but there are two questions yet to be answered that I find particularly troubling. First, how was the improper targeting of IRS agents allowed to continue for more than 18 months before it was finally brought to an end?

Secondly, how did the internal IRS process involve so many high-level IRS officials yet remain hidden from the public and from Congress for more than 2 years?

Former Commissioner Miller was quoted yesterday as saying the IRS misconduct was a result of two ``rogue'' employees in Cincinnati who were ``overly aggressive.'' Yet we now know from the IG report the IRS's attempt to deal with the targeting of conservative groups went through numerous high-level IRS officials in Washington.

We know as early as March of 2010, IRS officials in Washington were involved in applying special scrutiny to tea party and other applications with conservative-sounding names. According to the IG report, the head of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division and the IRS Chief Counsel became aware of this targeting almost 2 years ago in the summer of 2011.

Let's be clear: The scandal isn't simply a few rogue employees. The real scandal is an entire bureaucratic structure within the IRS that allowed this targeting to go on for 18 months.

Behind me is the organizational chart from the IG report showing all the offices that were involved in dealing with the improper targeting of conservative groups. As you can see, of the 12 offices on this chart, only two of these offices are based in Cincinnati. The other 10 offices are in Washington, DC. This particular office was the office--until just last night--Acting Commissioner Steven Miller held. But as you can see, Mr. President, this is lifted directly from the IG's report. This is an organizational chart that suggests the two offices in Cincinnati were a small part of a much bigger web of offices and individuals who were involved.

This situation may have started with a few rogue employees in Cincinnati, but the idea that somehow it was confined to that one small part of the IRS structure is simply untrue. It is also misleading to suggest the IRS has been anything other than secretive and resistant to calls for greater transparency when it comes to the agency's handling of conservative groups.

We now know then-Deputy Commissioner Miller was made aware of inappropriate targeting of conservative groups as early as May of 2012. Yet for 1 year Mr. Miller did not bring this information to the attention of the public or Congress.

In June and August of 2012 I joined with fellow Republican Senators on the Finance Committee in sending letters to the IRS regarding reports the IRS was requiring conservative 501(c)(4)s to disclose their donors and expressing concerns the IRS may change regulations affecting these groups in response to political pressures. The IRS responses to these letters did not acknowledge any special treatment of conservative groups.

In November Mr. Miller became the Acting IRS Commissioner, and in this capacity he testified before the Senate Finance Committee regarding the issue of tax fraud and ID theft. He did not take that opportunity to make remarks or to comment on the subject of targeting conservative groups. Time and time again high-level IRS officials deliberately avoided disclosing information regarding the targeting of conservative groups.

The American people deserve to know that action will be taken to ensure the IRS will never participate in this kind of partisanship again, and they deserve to know that leaders of such agencies will be held accountable for such breaches of trust. These actions undermine the confidence the American people have in the IRS to objectively and transparently administer our Nation's tax laws.

These actions by the IRS are a continuation of a troubling trend from the self-proclaimed most transparent administration in history. All of these incidents are beginning to add up to a growing credibility gap between this administration under President Obama and the high standard of public service the American people deserve.

Now, thanks to ObamaCare, the IRS will be administering parts of the health care law. The IRS's power will grow as they become responsible for determining whether Americans have satisfied the government mandate to have health insurance and whether the government will pay for part of that coverage through refundable tax credits.

As noted by the National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, ObamaCare is ``the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history.''

As I previously mentioned, this isn't the only ObamaCare-related scandal that has come to light this week. Over the weekend the Washington Post reported that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has been soliciting donations from health care executives to fund left-leaning organizations that are trying to work hand-in-hand with HHS to enroll individuals in ObamaCare exchanges.

If these reports are accurate, the actions taken by the Secretary represent a very serious conflict of interest. Companies and organizations should never be pressured for money because it sends the message that contributions are necessary to secure favorable regulatory decisions, creating a pay-to-play environment.

Earlier this week David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, said it isn't possible for the President to be aware of all these problems in government because government is simply too big. It is mind-blowing to consider how large the Federal Government is and how the one individual responsible for this $3.6 trillion entity can't even keep tabs on all the activity. Perhaps this is exactly why we should be focused on policies that shrink the size of government so it can be more transparent and more accountable to citizens of this country.

Chief Justice John Marshall, in the seminal opinion McCulloch v. Maryland, wrote: ``The power to tax is the power to destroy.'' Those words still ring true nearly 200 years later.

This administration is using one of its greatest powers--the power to tax--to destroy one of the people's strongest God-given rights, the right to free political speech. This isn't just an attack on certain conservative groups, it is an attack on all of our rights to assemble and to express free political speech without the fear of repercussion from our government. President Obama has a long way to go to restore public confidence and to stop the growing credibility gap that so far has plagued his second term.

I look forward to next Tuesday's oversight hearing in the Finance Committee where I hope we can begin the process of reining in a government agency that has run amuck.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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