{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=3d30fc40-cff8-4130-9306-e1ccf2452fac", "McConnell to Oppose Confirmation of IRS Commissioner Nominee", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor\u00a0regarding the nomination of John Koskien to lead the IRS:\r\n\u201cEarlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service admitted responsibility for an incredible abuse of power.  \u00a0  \u201cIn the midst of an election season, it targeted and harassed Americans for the supposed crime of thinking differently.\r\n\u201cAn agency with access to some of the most personal information of every taxpaying American betrayed their trust. And in doing so, it showed the lengths to which this administration will go to stifle those who dissent from its policies.   \u00a0  \u201cAll of this was, and remains, an outrage.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of thing we might expect from a banana republic or a third-world dictatorship, not the world\u2019s leading democracy. And the worst part is, we still don\u2019t know everything that happened \u2014 or if it\u2019s still going on.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s because the bipartisan investigation into all this still hasn't concluded yet.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s unclear to me how seriously the White House is taking this investigation. In many ways it seems to have treated the scandal more as a public relations problem to get past than a serious problem to solve.   \u00a0  \u201cAnd now \u2014 get this \u2014 they just expect the elected representatives of the people to roll over and rubber stamp a new presidential nominee to head the IRS. They want Congress to forget what happened too, and just move on.\r\n\u201cThey expect us to just clear the way tomorrow and let them ram through the President\u2019s new pick to run the IRS.   \u00a0  \u201cLook: The American people deserve answers about how and why this targeting happened. They deserve justice too. And I will not be supporting any nominee to lead this agency until the American people get the answers they deserve.  \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0   \u201cBut, of course, the Democrats in charge of the Senate changed the rules a few weeks back in order to ensure they could get their way on nominees, no matter what the American people think. It\u2019s the same kind of attitude we\u2019ve seen on the NDAA bill too, where the Majority Leader prevented other members from offering amendments.   \u00a0  \u201cThey\u2019ll just do what they want \u2013 even if it means breaking the rules.  \u00a0  \u201cSo, if John Koskinen does find himself confirmed tomorrow, I want him to know a few things.  \u00a0  \u201cFirst of all, he should understand that I don\u2019t hold any animus toward him personally.   \u00a0  \u201cUnder different circumstances, I might very well have been able to support him.   \u00a0  \u201cWe had a good conversation when we met recently to discuss his nomination.   \u00a0  \u201cBut he\u2019s also someone I\u2019ll be keeping a close watch on, as will the other members of my conference. As will the American people. Because big challenges lie ahead for the next IRS Commissioner, whoever he or she may be.\r\n\u201cWe expect the next IRS Commissioner to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation into this scandal.   \u00a0  \u201cWe expect whoever is eventually confirmed to hold those who broke or bent the rules accountable.\r\n\u201cWe expect the next Commissioner to fairly implement the laws that he or she is charged with executing.   \u00a0  \u201cTo his credit, Mr. Koskinen has assured me he agrees with me on a topic I feel strongly about \u2013 that the IRS should stay out of regulating political speech. He told me so himself. And I was pleased to hear it.   \u00a0  \u201cAnd so were he to become Commissioner, I\u2019d expect him to oppose the extremely misguided proposed IRS rule that aims to overturn more than 50 years of settled law and practice by unfairly targeting the speech of those who criticize the Administration while leaving its supporters untouched. This proposed rule, which redefines what \u2018social welfare\u2019 means in order to target certain groups that seek to educate the public, would end up penalizing federal, state, and local organizations for the supposed \u2018crime\u2019 of providing information \u2013 much of it non-partisan or bipartisan.   \u00a0  \u201cThe goal is clear: to make it easier to push through the back door what Congressional Democrats have been unable to pass through the front door \u2014 discriminatory policies that seek to silence those who dare oppose them.  \u00a0  \u201cIt\u2019s just the latest in a long and troubling pattern of Chicago-style tactics under this administration. And it\u2019s exactly the kind of political meddling that the next Commissioner needs to ensure never happens again.  \u00a0  \u201cLet\u2019s not forget: the IRS should be a boring place, an impartial agency of tax collectors, not the Vanguard of the Left.\r\n\u201cThe next Commissioner needs to see to it that the organization finally returns to its mission.   \u00a0  \u201cAnd he or she needs to root out those who would have the IRS target Americans for the way they think.  \u00a0  \u201cLastly, as I\u2019ve told Mr. Koskinen, I\u2019m deeply concerned about the IRS\u2019 role in implementing Obamacare.   \u00a0  \u201cThe fact of the matter is, Obamacare represents a dramatic expansion of the use of the tax code to pick winners and losers. It gives the agency broad new responsibilities for enforcing Obamacare\u2019s most onerous mandates, and to hand out nearly a trillion dollars in taxpayer subsidies. And in order to do all this, it will need to know who has insurance, penalize those who don\u2019t, and determine who\u2019s eligible for subsidies and how much they ought to receive \u2013 something that the agency has a very troubled history in doing with other programs.   \u00a0  \u201cAnd if they get any of that wrong, they\u2019ll need to come back and repossess subsidies after the fact too.   \u00a0  \u201cIn my view, the IRS doesn\u2019t have any business snooping even further into the lives of our constituents \u2014 especially at a time when it\u2019s already under a cloud of scandal. It\u2019s just one of the many reasons I opposed Obamacare in the first place, and why I continue to oppose it.   \u00a0  \u201cSo if Mr. Koskinen is to become Commissioner, then \u2014 at a minimum \u2014 I expect him to hold the agency to the highest standards when it comes to protecting the privacy of the people we represent.  \u00a0  \u201cI expect him to provide regular, transparent updates to Congress on the status of implementation, and to let us know of any problems as soon as they arise.  \u00a0  \u201cThe last thing we need is for the IRS to compound the pain it and Obamacare have already inflicted upon the American people by allowing fraud and further mistreatment to happen under its watch.\r\n\u201cThe IRS has done a lot to lose the trust of the American people. It will need to do a lot more to regain it.  \u00a0  \u201cFollowing the advice I just laid out would put the IRS on a better path. And, if Mr. Koskinen ends up becoming the next Commissioner, that advice will form the criteria upon which his performance will be judged.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=3d30fc40-cff8-4130-9306-e1ccf2452fac"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9141589980572462, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}