Marsha Blackburn: “I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding, and Mr. Flores has really done a wonderful job of outlining the problem…”

“I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding, and Mr. Flores has really done a wonderful job of outlining the problem that we have come to the floor to address tonight. Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, it is a problem and a situation that so many of our constituents never thought that they would witness or experience in this great Nation. They always felt that they had the right to free speech because it is a guaranteed right. How dare that they, or their groups, find themselves subjected to mistreatment by a Federal Government agency because of what they chose to say or to do, all in defense of liberty and the Constitution of this great land. Well, we had some of our Tennessee groups that were unjustly targeted through this process. They brought that to our attention because they realized that they were the brunt of this mistreatment, that they were facing a Federal Government agency who came bearing the power of the Federal Government to try to fear and intimidate citizens. Yes, indeed, it is the example of the government turning against the citizens and the power of the government being used to silence the citizens. So many of our constituents that were involved with this process said, What happened? How did this change? What has caused this to take place? And what they began to say to us was, if they can do this to others, what are they going to do to us? If they can do this to us in our group, what will they end up doing to others?…”