George Holding: “When most folks hear or think about the Internal Revenue Service, I am sure they probably think about the April 15…”

“When most folks hear or think about the Internal Revenue Service, I am sure they probably think about the April 15 deadline. Maybe they even think about the prospects of an audit, or, in most cases, I imagine people are thinking about and wondering, you know, when is their tax refund going to be delivered? {time} 1115 Or perhaps their minds might jump to the scandals that have plagued the IRS, from the targeting of conservative groups to the IRS' failures to keep track of employee emails. Whatever the case, Mr. Speaker, I don't believe most people would immediately associate the IRS as a Federal law enforcement agency. However, the IRS is, in fact, home to our Nation's sixth largest law enforcement agency. It is called the IRS Criminal Investigation, or CI, for short. CI was originally known as the IRS Intelligence division, and it was formed in 1919 to combat widespread corruption and organized crime. A great example of that from the early days is the investigation and conviction of Al Capone. Now, today, CI is solely responsible for the enforcement of criminal violations of our Nation's tax laws and shares jurisdiction over violations of money laundering and bank secrecy laws. In addition, CI has also become an indispensable tool used in the investigation of terror financing cases and works jointly with many of our other Federal law enforcement agencies. Now, Mr.…”