Kevin Roberts: “I would like first to thank my colleagues for working with Senator Flake and myself to bring this proposal forward. This…”

“I would like first to thank my colleagues for working with Senator Flake and myself to bring this proposal forward. This is a critical issue, one that really gets straight to the heart of our American democracy. The current investigations of the IRS clearly show it is not an overreaction to say that the Internal Revenue Service did suppress political opposition. Now, to Kansans, to Arizonans, to Texans, to Utahns all across the country, and to my colleagues, this is not only a scandal but one that is egregious. There is a great deal more than a ``smidgen'' at stake here. It gets right to the heart of our system of government. The government must be held accountable for its actions and must never be permitted to trample on the constitutional rights of our citizens. The behavior of the IRS in singling out select groups at their discretion for extra scrutiny and harassment just because they hold views that differ from the administration is simply outrageous. Worse, the IRS continues to target groups whose politics it does not like even as we speak on the floor of the Senate. In fact, the proposed IRS 501(c)(4) regulations will even more directly prevent groups the IRS does not favor from really participating in the political process. The proposed regulations would place much tougher controls on what would be considered political activity, effectively blocking the normal practice of a wide range of not-for-profit organizations, not only conservatives.…”