The hearing will ensure that we have the IRS's perspective as Congress considers additional actions that are necessary to address both this broken agency and the broken Tax Code the agency used as a means to target and intimidate Americans…

At the close of the Committee's first hearing into the IRS's targeting of conservatives, I said this phase of the investigation was just beginning.

No taxpayer, regardless of political affiliation, should be unfairly targeted. It is wrong, and this Committee is working to ensure that it will never happen again.

It is also important that we hear from IRS leadership about what immediate steps the agency has undertaken to address these actions.

While we now know that the IRS began targeting individuals based on their personal beliefs 3 years ago, we still need to know who began this targeting and why, and we need to understand how individuals were affected by the IRS' abuse.

This was a willful act of intimidation to discourage a point of view. What the government did to our little group in Wetumpka, Alabama, is un-American.

Isn't it incredible what you are going through to maintain your First Amendment rights? ... we took an oath to defend our Constitution.

The American public expects the Internal Revenue Service to be apolitical in its enforcement of our tax laws.

Ms. Lerner should be relieved of her duties.

The nation deserves a complete understanding of this matter, and as Chairman Camp and I discussed this morning, it is essential that there be a thorough and bipartisan investigation and effective remedial action.

We look forward to full and forthcoming answers to our questions today.