IRS Response Letter

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss the IRS response letter that was sent to me and 51 of my colleagues asking for an investigation of the Clinton Foundation's tax-exempt status.

Now, the IRS responded to us with a letter. It is dated May 21. What we received back, Mr. Speaker, from the IRS was simply a form letter. It was addressed, ``Dear Sir or Madam,'' not even my name. The director of the Exempt Organizations Examinations didn't even take the time to sign the letter.

What we have is this: the IRS has so little respect for Members of Congress who are asking a question, who are seeking clarity on behalf of their constituents, that they respond to a congressional inquiry with a letter that is a form letter, not even signed. Well, you can imagine that we were a little bit surprised by this.

I think it is important to talk about why we were asking for clarity on the Clinton Foundation and their tax-exempt status. We all have 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations that do great work in our communities. Many of these organizations had come to us--their Member of Congress--and said: What do you know about how the Clinton Foundation works? What about these foreign donations that are coming into the Clinton Foundation?

We were continuing to look at this because when you go to charitynavigator.org, which many of our colleagues or our constituents would do, and you pull up, you enter in the search engine ``the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation,'' what comes up is this:

We don't evaluate Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Why not? We have determined that this charity's atypical business model cannot be accurately captured in our current rating methodology.

How interesting is that; how very interesting. The American people are wanting to know how this charity keeps a not-for-profit status and how they conduct business. It is appropriate that we write the IRS and ask for clarity on this situation, doing it on behalf of our constituents who are seeking answers to questions.

Now, I have to tell you, we know that there is no shortage of pens in the executive branch of this government. The President has said he has got a pen and a phone and he will work around Congress if he needs to. We understand that.

We know they have pens over at the IRS. We know that they have just chosen to dismiss what we have asked for, which is clarity. We have a divided government; we have a system of checks and balances, and we do expect to have a response from the IRS that addresses the structure of this organization.

Mr. Speaker, we are going to continue to follow this issue. We have found it quite amusing that this is how they would choose to address the inquiry and that this is the attitude that they are taking.

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