To provide that the only health plans that the Federal Government may make available to the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, and Federal employees are those created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or offered through a health insurance exchange.

Mr. Speaker, thank you for the recognition. This evening, I would like to lead the discussion about the blatant abuse of power by the Internal Revenue Service, specifically regarding its targeting of Americans because of their political beliefs.

In early 2012, the Waco Tea Party contacted me to express concern about overly onerous information requests regarding their request to become a 501(c)(4) organization. I subsequently contacted the IRS to get answers, and I also contacted the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to inform them of the situation that I had been made aware of. Unfortunately, following my inquiry into the IRS, the issue did not go away and, in fact, it got worse. I began to learn that this targeting was wide and spread throughout the country.

In April of 2012, I, along with 62 of my House colleagues, sent a letter to then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman requesting a response as to why the IRS was targeting and intimidating conservative groups. We received a basic, nonresponsive letter from the IRS that outlined how applications are processed and that in no way answered our questions on the targeting and the onerous questioning of the grassroots groups.

On May 10, 2013, just a little over a year later, the IRS officially apologized for inappropriately targeting conservative groups like the Waco Tea Party. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee started and continued to conduct hearings into this targeting of conservative groups.

News reports would go on to reveal that senior IRS personnel knew about this practice as far back as 2011, directly contradicting earlier testimony of senior IRS personnel, who claimed that they did not know of these practices. I, along with my colleagues here on the House floor tonight, are far from satisfied with just an apology.

We have several letters from groups that we are going to share with you tonight. This needless and abusive targeting has burdened many conservative groups throughout the country. I have invited several of my colleagues to come to the House floor and to join me as we bring back to the forefront this blatant abuse of power from the IRS on conservative groups. Tonight, I would like to present the injustice that has been done by reading letters to Congress from these targeted groups that go into detail about their experiences.

The first letter is from a group in my district, Texas District 17. It is the Waco Tea Party. Here is what their letter says:

We are writing to you to explain to you and to your

colleagues what it is like to be targeted by the government

via the Internal Revenue Service. We are not writing to

explain the facts and details--that is all a matter for

public record and the courts--but rather to explain what

happens to United States citizens who simply exercise their

rights under the law.

When we began the Waco Tea Party, we were regular Americans

who spoke out about being taxed enough already. We weren't

political operatives or politicians. For the most part, we

were new to the world of politics. We were naive. We believed

our government had problems, but we didn't realize that it

would target citizens for their political beliefs, that it

would put us on a ``be on the lookout,'' or BOLO, list, for

short, for using the words ``Tea Party'' in our name; that

some Members of Congress would write to the IRS and demand

action against us because we held a different position on

policy.

We weren't targeted because we broke the law; we were

targeted because we were compliant with the law. We weren't

targeted because we spoke out; we were targeted because our

viewpoints weren't acceptable to government bureaucrats at

the IRS. The law was wrongly used against us in an attempt to

shut us out and to shut us up.

The toll this IRS targeting is taking on our lives is

immeasurable. The financial burden on our small grassroots

group has been staggering, requiring many of us to dip into

our household budgets to cover expenses, the sleepless nights

worrying about what would happen if we couldn't find someone

to help us, the emotional stress of explaining to your

spouse, your children, family, and friends why you have to

miss a special event or special day because we had to work on

inane and intrusive demands by the IRS, questions that had

nothing to do with our application but were instead used as a

weapon of intimidation.

The countless nights that we have laid in our bed not able

to sleep, the times that we quietly cried into a pillow

because we don't want our spouse to know how scared we are,

or the isolation we have felt because of how the media and

even some Members of Congress have demonized us, none of this

matters to an agent of the government. We are not seen as

people. We deeply love our country. We are patriotic, and we

are dedicated to preserving our birthrights guaranteed by the

Constitution and passing them on to the next generation.

Our grandfathers, fathers, and others fought wars against

countries that use government to squelch freedom and liberty

of their citizens, only to find that out our own government

was now engaging in these tactics. We are not ashamed of our

country, but we are disgusted with our government and those

who condone the IRS tactics.

We implore you to act to preserve political speech, free

speech, to hold people accountable for what they have done to

the American citizens. We pray that you and your colleagues

will act to restrain government, punish those who were

responsible, and restore our First Amendment rights to what

the Founders intended.

Sincerely, Toby Marie Walker, Carol Waddell, Becky Kodrin,

and Bobby Keith, Waco Tea Party members, supporters and

volunteers.

Mr. Speaker, as I told you, there are several letters we have to share tonight. The next person I would like to invite to speak is Randy Weber from Texas District 14, and he will share

what some of his constituents have written to him.

I thank my friend from Texas (Mr. Weber). And I am now honored to yield to another friend from the great State of Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, who represents the Tennessee Seventh.

I thank the Congresswoman from Tennessee.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the words that were shared with us from the gentlelady from Tennessee, from one of her constituents. And we hear firsthand the agonizing feelings of her constituents as they have experienced the abuse of an overreach of Federal power by this feared agency, the IRS.

I am now pleased to yield to another one of my good friends. Representative Lankford from Oklahoma will share what some of the folks in Oklahoma Five think about what the IRS has done.

I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lankford) for sharing with us more chilling evidence of a Federal Government that has gone wild and how the Federal Government can target you based on what is in your name.

I would now like to yield to my good friend from Texas, Mr. Louie Gohmert, from Texas' District One.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of Mr. Gohmert. I think he raises an issue that all Americans rightly need to be concerned about, and that is the invasion of our privacy that we expect to have under our Constitution when you have an IRS that is looking into your personal records.

Mr. Speaker, I did get a letter from the IRS about 6 weeks after I wrote my letter to them demanding an answer for what they were doing to the Waco Tea Party. So I think they are targeting everybody. They don't care who they target. It seems like they are on a mission to try to squelch opposition to this administration's policies.

I would now like to yield to a brand-new freshman Member from Florida. Mr. DeSantis from Florida's Sixth District is going to share some stories about what his constituents have experienced with the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for that heartfelt testimony today. I would also like to thank him for his years of service in the United States Navy and as a current member of the United States Naval Reserve. We appreciate having people like this that serve our country.

It is a shame that Americans who serve their country, whether they are in Congress or just a member of a local Tea Party, are targeted because of the fact that they are concerned about what is happening in Washington, what is happening from an administration or from the nameless, faceless bureaucrats that you heard of a few minutes ago.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time we have left?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have, as I told you at the outset of this conversation, many letters that we received from folks all over this country. And I am not going to read all these letters, but I am going include some of them in the Record of tonight's proceedings.

One letter is from Amen, or Abortion Must End Now, that talks about how they were targeted. The Greenwich Tea Party Patriots of South Jersey wrote in about how they were targeted and the IRS treated them.

You heard Mr. DeSantis from Florida talk about the First Coast Tea Party and how they were targeted, so their letter is going to be part of the Record. The Hawaii Tea Party writes in and talks about their experiences with the IRS. The Kentucky 9/12 Project has written in to talk about what they experienced.

The Manassas Tea Party next door in Virginia has written in to talk about how long it took for them to have their application reviewed and how they were bullied and insulted.

You heard Mr. Lankford talk about the OK Tea Party and Patriots in Action Association. The Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now, or PECAN for short, in California, we got a letter from them. The Roane County Tea Party from Tennessee, we have got a letter from them.

We also have a letter from the San Fernando Valley Patriots in California that talks about the IRS treatment and the abuse. Actually, this one is sort of interesting because it has a poem, so I am going to read this one.

Again, this is from the San Fernando Valley Patriots in California. This letter starts with a poem entitled, ``Our Grassroots Voice,'' by Karen Kenney, coordinator, San Fernando Valley Patriots:

The faces of the San Fernando Valley Patriots are different

from our voice.

We are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, but

patriots all.

We speak as one with a love of God and country.

But our voice is a whisper against the roar that is this

government.

We began as a ``tea party'' group in May 2009 near Los

Angeles; born from the tax burdens within the American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A government too big, makes each citizen small, we thought.

The First Amendment would offer a platform for us to speak

politically, but we were wrong. Our government unsheathed its

sword: the IRS.

The IRS did what tyranny does: threaten and control. The

questionnaires sent to us were consuming; their intent to

test our resolve.

But liberty prefers to stand and be heard.

We held more than 85 events in 2 years, but donations

dropped and costs rose. We could afford fewer speakers,

rallies, and handouts.

In July 2012, we withdrew our application for tax-exempt

status with the IRS after 20 months of delays and grueling

red tape.

We must now pay nonprofit taxes in California. The minimum

is $800 annually.

We have little money, but more people.

On June 4, 2013, the Ways and Means Committee heard our

voice.

Now, our voice is stronger and more hear it. God bless

America.

And here is their letter:

On June 4, 2013, we told our story to the Ways and Means

Committee. We did not plead the Fifth. We did not hide the

facts. We did not lie. Our voice rose against the tyranny

that is the IRS scandal. We told the truth of how a

government too big makes each citizen small. We told the

truth of abuse of power by the fist of a grinding

bureaucracy.

We spoke of demand-and-delay tactics that cut our funds and

public face. The IRS kept pounding, and we stopped our

application for tax relief. But we did not stop meeting,

teaching, and talking about the Constitution.

Now we have fewer speakers, fewer rallies, and fewer

resources. But our resolve is undaunted. You see, we stand

firmly with the First Amendment, not the Fifth.

God bless this Nation. God bless its people. God bless our

liberty.

Karen Kenney, San Fernando Valley Patriots.

We have a letter from the Shelby County Liberty in Ohio. We have the Unite in Action from Nashville, Tennessee. We have the Wetumpka Tea Party from Alabama, who wrote in about their treatment at the hands of an overreaching IRS.

The Liberty Township Tea Party from Ohio has written in. The Richmond Tea Party, again, from next door in Virginia, has a letter that they want Americans to know about. The Rochester Tea Party Patriots in Minnesota, and the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots in Arizona have written in.

On our Web site at flores.house.gov we have a timetable of when the IRS started this and what processes they went through and the lies that were told to the American people about what they were doing. And then we also had some testimony about when they came clean and when IRS officials started to resign. So it would be fascinating for Americans to be able to see that.

Mr. Speaker, the IRS is supposed to enforce our tax laws with integrity and fairness. Yet here we are, 6 months later, and the Obama administration has done nothing more than to try and ride out the storm without taking action.

Lois Lerner and Doug Shulman have resigned from the IRS. However, they are still entitled to live the rest of their lives living on the backs of the hardworking American taxpayers that they abused when they were with the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, folks like Lerner and Shulman should never be allowed to get away with behavior like this and to get on Federal retirement. The IRS must stop targeting certain individuals and groups for partisan reasons. It is time that the administration gives Congress the information that we have requested over and over and over again so that the American people will know the facts and so that they will know that these practices are no longer being done. Americans deserve and demand transparency from government agencies, and they deserve compliance with law and with the Constitution.

My colleagues and I remain committed to finding answers and to putting a stop to this injustice. Mr. Speaker, I would like for every Federal bureaucrat who has tried to abuse the American people to have to submit their testimony with this same language that they requested from these everyday Americans who were just trying to stand up and exercise their First Amendment rights. I would like them to say:

Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this information, including the accompanying documents, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the information that all the relevant facts relating to the request for information and such facts are true, correct and complete.

This is what Lois Lerner should have had to provide, not plead the Fifth. As I said before, my colleagues and I remain committed to finding answers and to putting a stop to this injustice.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing us to bring this issue back to the forefront as we continue to look for answers and demand action. We will reassure the American public that the IRS and other Federal agencies will not scrutinize individuals and groups for political or ideological party reasons.

I also submit for the Record the letters that we received tonight.

I would ask that all Americans tonight continue to pray for their country during these difficult times for our military men and women and for our first responders.

I will close by saying, God bless America.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

AMEN (Abortion Must End Now)

AMEN (Abortion Must End Now) is a faith-based organization

dedicated to defending the sanctity of life from its moment

of conception. The Internal Revenue Service targeted AMEN,

accusing us of being political.

Months into our 501c3 filing, AMEN received a letter from

the IRS, not fully understanding the terminology, I phoned

them. The IRS specialist shared with me that we could be seen

as being ``too political''. The specialist continued to

explain that the references to religion within our Mission

statement could be an issue. The IRS also informed me that

our name, AMEN (Abortion Must End Now) could be seen as

``political'' because it infers, ``we aim to abolish

abortion.'' I questioned, ``We would have to change our name

and Mission?'' the IRS Specialist responded, ``Most likely.''

I shared with the specialist that if we changed our name and

Mission, we would no longer be the same organization.

It is because of the statements made by the IRS that we

ignored future letters to pursue our tax-exempt status. We

felt with abortion silencing the voices of over 3,200

American babies each day, we could not allow the IRS to

silence ours.

The abuse of the IRS has truly impacted our organization.

We operate on a very low budget, as many are unable to donate

without having the advantage of a tax credit. We feel that

our growth has been stunted due to the unethical actions of

the IRS. We also feel that we continue to be a target as

after our application for tax exemption in 2009, 2 out of 3

Directors of AMEN have been audited.

AMEN was targeted because we believe in defending the

Unalienable Right to Life. The IRS has acted unlawfully and

it is this unlawful abuse that must be aborted.

God Bless America,

Kristy Lien, President.

Thank you to my colleague for hosting this.

Mr. Speaker, about 3\1/2\ years ago, Americans started getting more and more frustrated. It is really a product of several years of building, this sense of helplessness as they struggled and watched their Nation--I don't even know how to begin to describe the emotions that really welled up about 4 years ago when Americans watched their health care beginning to slip away. This absolute divide that happened as a Nation between Republicans and Democrats--and they used to try to work together to try to resolve things--went out the window on a pure partisan vote to push through a health care change that not a single Republican voted for. And Democrats, in a skittish way, pushed it with glee while others stepped back and said, I hope this works the way it is being advertised.

As we know now, it is not working. It is working exactly as many Republicans said it would work. And the impulse of the Federal Government to take over more and more would actually cause serious problems in the process.

At the same time, the United States Government began to overspend more than it ever had in the history of the United States. Mr. Speaker, $1.45 trillion of overspending in a single year led millions of Americans to stop and to gather--many of them for the first time-- gather in small groups and say, Our government is really struggling. This is not going, as a Nation, how we thought it would go. And they gathered together in small groups, which were spontaneously called these Tea Party groups, groups of patriots and individuals, housewives, moms, business leaders, and guys that owned locksmith shops, and all of these different places that were around just started gathering together to say, What can we do? Just normal Americans.

As they began to form and to meet in groups of five, 10, 20, 25-- sometimes they would meet with huge rallies of 100 or 200 people. But most of the time, it is at somebody's house. Most of the time it is at a VFW meeting place or some other spot. They determined, Well, we need to get organized, and we need to be able to pass out materials and do some things. And to do that in our governmental system, they have got to try to find some way to be able to organize that money together, which means they need to contact the Internal Revenue Service and be able to access and get a revenue number. Well, they started that.

One of those groups was in Oklahoma, a group called Oklahoma City Patriots in Action. This group of individuals are just normal Oklahoma great folks. They got together, submitted their application, and went through the process they needed to do. And then they get a letter back with 21 questions, some of them having up to nine subquestions to it. Sixty-five total requests came back to this group of individuals saying, We will give you your number if you will tell us all of this information. And to accentuate it, the letter begins with first them needing to sign this statement:

Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined

this information, including accompanying documents, and, to

the best of my knowledge and belief, the information contains

all the relevant facts relating to the request for the

information, and such facts are true, correct, and complete.

And then they go on to make 65 different data requests, many of them incredibly long.

There is no question this letter is intended to intimidate people; but I can tell you from knowing these Oklahomans, they tried to intimidate the wrong people with this.

So let me just give you an example of some of the things they began to ask for in this long list of questions. They asked things like:

Do you directly or indirectly communicate with members of

legislative bodies? If so,

provide copies of the written communications and contents of

other forms of communications.

In other words, if you redress grievances to your elected officials, as our Constitution allows you to do, please provide us a copy of everything you said when you went to your government for a redress of grievances.

How about this:

Give detailed examples on how you will educate the public

concerning key legislation and the positions of political

candidates and elected officials on that legislation.

Please explain how you obtain the current legislative

information, both State and Federal, and the turnaround time

to post on your Web site.

Why in the world does it matter what their turnaround time is-- whether they post it in a day or 10 days--for your IRS application?

How about this:

Please provide copies of your current Web pages from your

Web site.

Wouldn't it be easier just to ask for the Web site name and then go search it themselves? They wouldn't have to print out copies of every page.

And here are two sets of my favorites, of this long list. I could go on and on with it. This asks:

Have you conducted or will you conduct rallies or

exhibitions for or against any public policies, legislation,

public officers, political candidates, or like kinds? If yes,

please explain and provide the following: State the time,

location, and content schedule of each rally or exhibition.

Provide copies of handouts you provided or will provide to

the public. The names of persons from your organization and

the amount of time they have spent or will spend on the

event.

One last piece--and again, I could go on and on with this. This is the one that, when I read through this, it continued just to make my blood boil:

Have any candidates running for public office spoken or

will they speak at a function of your organization? If so,

provide the names of the candidates, the functions at which

they spoke, any materials distributed or published with

regard to their appearance and the event, any video or audio

recordings of the event, and a transcript of any speeches

given by the candidates.

Now, these are a gatherings of 20 people sitting around in someone's house. They are not transcribing every part of everything that is said. These are normal Americans getting together to discuss what is going on in their government. And the IRS said, If you want to continue to do this and be organized, we need to get a transcript of every speech that was done around your kitchen table.

And to add insult to injury, remember what I said at the beginning, Under penalties of perjury, if you don't provide completely everything in this, you are not eligible.

What is this intended to do? This is intended to silence. This is intended to tell good, hardworking Americans, Be quiet, sit around your dining room table, don't organize, don't keep moving.

Now when our committee asked about this, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which I serve on, when we asked about this initially and began pushing forward to get more information--because as the folks in Oklahoma City know, this is not an isolated event. Letters like this, with other questions, went to other places all over the country, to everyone who had the name ``Tea Party,'' had the word ``liberty,'' or had the word ``patriot'' in their name. They were assigned to a specific group in Cincinnati, and they dead-ended all in that one group.

Now, initially, when we asked individuals about it, we were told this was just a crazy group of folks in Cincinnati that went rogue, as if they all worked for WKRP, and they were out there just being crazy in Cincinnati.

When we asked those quote-unquote ``rogue'' agents in Cincinnati to come before our committee and to tell us about it, what we were told was very clear. They were following the instructions they got from Washington, D.C., on what to do with these applications. And a special group was set up that all they did was take in applications that had ``Tea Party,'' ``liberty,'' or ``patriot'' in it. And when they arrived at that location, they were to sit there and wait for instructions from Washington, D.C.

So we asked the Cincinnati folks, Who gave you those instructions in Washington, D.C.? Those individuals were then called before our committee. And we asked those individuals, Did you give instructions to the Cincinnati office? Yes. Why did you do that? Here was their statement:

Because we were told by the IRS counsel to wait on their

instructions.

We are now in the process of doing interviews with the IRS counsel to say, Why was the decision made to say, people with certain names, send them letters like this with no intention of ever answering them? That they would get 65 detailed requests like this, each providing a very long response needed? And that then when it was finally collected, they would dead-end in Cincinnati. Why? We are still trying to get that answer.

Why does that matter? Because Americans, whether they be liberal, conservative, anything in between should have a government that serves them, rather than intimidates them. It is right that we continue to walk through this process. It is right that good, hardworking Americans are not intimidated by their government.

This is something that needs to be resolved and will be resolved, and though the headlines have faded away on it, we have not forgotten these individuals. And we will continue to work through the process to be held to account and to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone again in the days ahead.

I thank the gentleman for hosting this time so that these folks in Oklahoma City and around the country are not forgotten.

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?

So we have worked very closely and continue to follow what is happening with these groups and, of course, have been very concerned, as we have heard and watched the hearings for how the IRS carried out this data-mining and these word searches.

I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, it is no doubt at all, no doubt in my mind at all why the American people are so concerned about the security of the President's health care law. They know that their data may be used against them because they have living proof with the IRS, that they took information, applications, donors to groups, and then they turned that information against those donors from those groups in order to silence them and to impair their free speech.

I want to read a letter tonight from one of the groups in my district, in our State, that has been unfairly and unjustly treated by the IRS. And this one comes from Linchpins of Liberty. It is stating their posture as of October 21 of this year.

And the gentleman who is the executive director of Linchpins of Liberty is a gentleman named Kevin Kookogey, who started his organization because he loves his country. He loves freedom. He wants to preserve this for his children and future generations.

So he did what a lot of Americans do, decided to put together an organizational structure that individuals could come together under to further the cause of freedom, something more individuals could and should do.

But this is what happened to him, and I am quoting from his letter, which I will enter, Mr. Speaker, as a part of the permanent record for the proceedings of this evening:

Dear Congresswoman Blackburn,

As you know, I am president and founder of Linchpins of

Liberty, an American Leadership Development Enterprise.

On January 2, 2011, we filed our application with the IRS

seeking to obtain a 501(c)(3) status as an educational

organization.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that date is important. January 2, 2011:

For over 33 months now, the IRS has unlawfully delayed and

obstructed that application. Under threat of perjury, the IRS

has demanded that I disclose the identities of my students,

some of whom are minors. One letter from the IRS contained in

excess of 90 inquiries of intimidation intended to force me

to disclose my donors and to identify the political

affiliation of my mentors.

This has come at great cost to me. I have already lost a

$30,000 grant from a reputable nonprofit whose executive

director advised me that he had never seen such treatment of

a 501(c)(3) applicant in his 25 years of making grants.

On June 5, 2013, the day after I testified before Congress,

I then lost most of my business when my largest client

advised me that it was uncomfortable with the public

expression of my political views in defending my

constitutional rights.

A few days later, Congressman McDermott suggested on

national television that I may have lied before Congress

simply because I was not under oath when I testified. Perhaps

he was projecting, because I don't make a distinction between

whether or not I am under oath. I tell the truth all the

time.

If the intent of the administration is to intimidate and

silence the voices of freedom, then it has grossly misjudged

its citizens. The government is not our master. It is our

agent. We are the principals, and we delegate our rights. We

do not surrender them.

I therefore respectfully appeal to you to confront this

abuse of power by the executive branch, and, in so doing, to

protect, defend and preserve human liberty for ourselves and

our posterity.

Sincerely, Kevin Kookogey, president and founder, Linchpins

of Liberty.

Mr. Speaker, when you read the letters such as the one from Mr. Kookogey, such as the ones that you are going to hear from other organizations tonight, what you realize is there is an outstanding field of questions relative to what has transpired with the IRS:

Why did they go about this?

What was their purpose?

Was it maliciousness?

Were their actions purposeful?

Was it intended to silence, to silence those that stand in opposition to the practices and the positions of this administration?

Those are some of the questions that our constituents are still seeking to find the answers to. They would like to have their IRS designation because they recognize we are a Nation of laws. We abide by the law, and they would seek to operate within the law.

October 21, 2013.

Re Linchpins of Liberty--The Cost of Speaking for Freedom

Hon. Marsha Blackburn,

Washington, DC.

Dear Congresswoman Blackburn: As you know, I am President

and Founder of Linchpins of Liberty: An American Leadership

Development Enterprise.

On January 2, 2011, we filed our application with the IRS,

seeking to obtain 501(c)(3) status as an educational

organization.

For over 33 months now, the IRS has unlawfully delayed and

obstructed that application. Under threat of perjury, the IRS

has demanded that I disclose the identities of my students--

some of whom are minors. One letter from the IRS contained in

excess of ninety (90) inquiries of intimidation intended to

force me to disclose my donors and to identify the political

affiliation of my mentors!

This has come at great cost to me. I have already lost a

$30,000 grant from a reputable non-profit whose Executive

Director advised me that he had never seen such treatment of

a 501(c)(3) applicant in his 25 years of making grants.

On June 5, 2013, the day after I testified before Congress,

I then lost most of my business when my largest client

advised me that it was uncomfortable with the public

expression of my political views in defending my

Constitutional rights.

A few days later, Congressman McDermott suggested on

national television that I may have lied before Congress

simply because I was not under oath when I testified. Perhaps

he was projecting, because I don't make a distinction between

whether or not I am under oath. I tell the truth ALL the

time.

If the intent of the Administration is to intimidate and

silence the voices of freedom, then it has grossly misjudged

its citizens. The government is not our master. It is our

agent. We are the principals, and we delegate our rights. We

do not surrender them.

I therefore respectfully appeal to you to confront this

abuse of power by the Executive Branch, and in so doing to

protect, defend, and preserve human liberty, for ourselves

and our posterity.

Sincerely,

Kevin Kookogey,

President & Founder, Linchpins of Liberty.

I thank my dear fellow alumnus of Texas A&M. We do go way back, knowing each other from undergraduate days.

I want to follow up, and I am very grateful for my friend from Texas (Mr. Flores) taking charge of this hour, setting it up to talk about the IRS and the abuses.

And I know we have been talking about the abuses of Tea Party conservative groups, pro-Israel groups; but I wanted to just touch in brief on the extent of the arrogance of the IRS. They feel like they are above the law. Lois Lerner never showed any remorse for what certainly appears not only to have been perjury but also to have been a crime. There is a specific criminal code provision dealing with abuses of the Internal Revenue office.

And you have Kathleen Sebelius. And right now, of course, people all over the country, millions are losing or have lost their health insurance. And there was this article here in October. This was from CNN News:

In an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta Tuesday night,

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said

she won't be enrolling in the problem-plagued health

insurance system that she was charged to implement. ``I have

created an account on the site. I have not tried signing up,

because I have insurance.''

Well, she--like the IRS--has Federal employee insurance, and they don't care about everybody else, but we know the head of Health and Human Services says she is not going to bother with it.

And as we look into the arrogance of the Internal Revenue Service-- and I especially appreciate my friend from Texas, Bill Flores, bringing this up because I don't know how many CPAs we have in Congress--but I know the CPA exam was a lot tougher than the bar exam. And I certainly appreciate somebody that knows about dealing with the IRS.

But this article, ``IRS Employees' Union Urges Members to Oppose Obamacare--For Themselves.'' And the article goes on. So NTEU, which is the union for Treasury employees, is strongly urging its members, including the IRS agents tasked with implementing ObamaCare, to oppose Dave Camp's legislation which would compel them to personally participate in the same health care program they will be enforcing. On the NTEU Web site, union members are urged to email their Congressmen and Senators and ask them to oppose H.R. 1780. It provides a sample letter that they should provide, saying:

I am a Federal employee and one of your constituents. I am

very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by

Congressman Dave Camp to push Federal employees out of the

Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and into the

insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care

Act.

It is just the height of arrogance that the IRS, while they are investigating groups that believe in the propriety and fidelity of the United States Constitution--because somehow they are a threat to the United States Constitution because they believe in it--at the same time, they know they are gearing up to enforce ObamaCare and to delve into the most private information that people have. It is not enough to just look at financial information. They are going to be looking to see about their health care and their health care coverage and can get even more detail than what we have been hearing during this hour.

I can't imagine a worse prescription for abandoning the Constitution than that. And not only that, we have heard that ObamaCare--correctly, apparently--that it will cause the hiring of 17,000, 18,000 new IRS agents. And although I was not a math major, I love math and did very well every time I took it, but if you multiply 56,000 times 18,000 IRS employees, in 1 year you have added over $1 billion to health care costs. And there is not one of those 18,000 IRS agents, as arrogant as they may be and as personal as they are going to get, that are going to do anything but create a need for health care and not provide any whatsoever.

They may cause some ulcers. They are certainly not going to solve or be a solution for someone's ulcers. We still don't have proper accountability for the IRS.

One other thing about the IRS and their handling of this. We keep being told that there are 5 million people that have lost their policies. As I understand it, it is 5 million policies. We are talking about a lot more than 5 million people. And when you think about the people that are going to have to pay for their health care and the extra billion dollars for new IRS agents and the billions of dollars over time that will be paid for the navigators and all those people that won't provide any health care whatsoever, it is staggering.

People across America, from the polls, are figuring out this isn't about their health care. This is about the GRE--the government running everything.

And some people I know wonder, well, what solution is there? Even if you had a fair tax or a flat tax, you still have got to have an IRS.

And I love Arthur Laffer, Reagan's economic adviser. He said, Louie, you don't have to have the IRS. You ought to do away with it.

The problem with the IRS is that, of course, they are going to get arrogant because they pick who they are going to audit, just like we have seen with all these abuses. They pick what all they are going to audit, just as we have been hearing. They get so intrusive, so personal, and then they decide what your punishment is going to be.

There is no other area like it in America, and I don't think the Founders anticipated that the IRS or any entity would ever exist that could be the prosecutor, the judge, the jury, and the executioner all. And that is why Arthur Laffer says you need to get rid of the IRS and have an auditing agency that is a fraction of the size of the IRS.

They don't get to pick whom they audit. That is done completely at random. They never get to pick whom they audit. And they never get to decide what will be done with their auditing. It has to be passed on to Justice or to the collection of the taxes if they have not been paid. They never get to participate in that. And I like the way that sounds, especially the more we hear about the abuses of people that are just freedom-loving Americans.

So I appreciate very much my friend taking this time so we can talk about the IRS. And I realize that he knew when he signed up for this hour that there would be others to come. And it is a brave thing because he is risking an audit as we go in because he knows better than anybody just how abusive the IRS can get.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas.

As we all know, in May of 2013, it was unearthed--that is probably a pretty good word, because they had it deeply buried in the government bureaucracy--that the IRS was unjustly targeting conservative 501(c)(4) groups and using aggressive intimidation tactics. Today, I rise with my colleagues to share the story of organizations that were unlawfully targeted by the IRS or Infernal Revenue Service, as I like to refer to them.

In southeast Texas, in my district, Texas District 14--they are on the gulf coast--the Clear Lake Tea Party was just such a group, one of many that fell victim to the IRS' illegal--and I want to underscore that--illegal maneuvers.

On November 23, 2009, the Clear Lake Tea Party filed their 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. After having received no word from the IRS for almost 8 months, the founder of the Clear Lake Tea Party made an inquiry regarding the status of their application. What they got back from the IRS should shock and appall every American. Here is what Mary Huls, president of the Clear Lake Tea Party, sent our office, what they got back on July 12, 2010:

The Clear Lake Tea Party received an additional information

request from Elizabeth Hofacre in the Cincinnati, Ohio,

office of the IRS demanding 19 more nontax-related items to

complete our application.

The Clear Lake Tea Party board was duly alarmed by the

broad and personal nature of the information required, which

we would have to deliver and declare under penalties of

perjury. We judged the questions to be far outside the normal

purview of a nominal request for a tax exempt designation.

For example, number one: they were requested to provide a

list of speakers and their qualifications for events that the

Clear Lake Tea Party have had in the prior year. They were

asked to provide copies of information that was easily found

on Facebook and Twitter.

And then, believe it or not, the Clear Lake Tea Party there in Galveston, Texas, Clear Lake, League City, Galveston County area, was asked to explain their relationship with the King Street Patriots, another Tea Party.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. What in the world does that have to do with their application for their own tax exempt (c)(4) status?

Number 4, they were asked to--and let me just hasten to add, they were not asked to explain their relationship with ACORN or moveon.org or Organizing For America.

Number 4, they were asked to explain the Operation Pink Slip Program and to provide literature concerning this program. How did you decide who would be fired?

Of course, the Clear Lake Tea Party, their immediate reaction upon receiving this information was confusion. You see, they had already been investigated by an IRS agent.

Well, after the IRS' beyond intrusive and illegal, I might add, investigation of the Clear Lake Tea Party, the Clear Lake Tea Party's board met and made the executive decision to withdraw their 501(c)(4) application and to file with the State of Texas as a Texas nonprofit corporation that pays taxes in order to practice and protect their First Amendment freedom of speech.

We got a subsequent email from Ms. Huls, president of the Clear Lake Tea Party, and she stated in that email that they would not be intimidated by this Federal agency or any other, and they would go down a different path. And so they chose to file as a Texas nonprofit.

Mr. Speaker, it is an absolute shame, and I will say a travesty, that the head of the IRS, the former head, could come up to testify in front of our committees, stick her finger in the face of the American taxpayer, in the eye, I would say, and say, I am going to claim the Fifth Amendment. I don't have to answer your questions. I don't have to be accountable to you. I don't have to be accountable to the American taxpayer.

And what I said to my district was, try that one on for size when the IRS wants to audit you. Get in front of their agents, their Gestapo, their henchmen and say, I plead the Fifth Amendment. I don't have to answer your questions, and see how that works.

It is unbelievable, Mr. Speaker, that in the United States of America, we are scrutinized for the applications we file and words are chosen like conservatives, King Street Patriots, and we are so deeply scrutinized as to drive the Clear Lake Tea Party to withdraw their (c)(4) tax exempt status.

Not in America should this ever happen. I am urging my colleagues in the House to join me and my fellow patriots all across this land to continue that cry that the justified scrutiny of the IRS to make sure two things, that those who did this are held accountable, and that it never, ever can happen again in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Mr. Speaker, I am Randy Weber, and I love my country. It is the government I fear.