Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to applaud my colleague, Chairman Roskam, for bringing this legislation to the floor. It is an important piece of legislation, Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act. Back in 2012, when I was the Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means, I started this investigation into the IRS' unconstitutional targeting of conservative groups for their political beliefs. We passed some legislation back then to improve transparency and accountability at the IRS, but I can tell you much more needs to be done, and this is part of that effort to continue to hold this agency accountable. Taxpayers deserve to know whether the IRS is violating their privacy. Chairman Roskam's bill furthers that effort by preventing the IRS from targeting nonprofits by prohibiting the agency from collecting the identity of donors who contribute to these organizations. We know that the IRS can impose an audit at any time, but there is no need for the IRS to just collect all this information when they can't even do some of the things they are supposed to be doing with the resources they have. This bill is a step toward restoring individual privacy that the IRS has been exploiting and abusing, and I think the American people have had enough. Passing this bill would dramatically reduce the information that the IRS has the legal ability to demand, lessening that chance, that potential for abuse.…”