Congressman Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (Ga-01) acted today to further his mission of eliminating the abuse at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To prevent additional politically motivated targeting scandals by the IRS like the "accidental" leak by an IRS employee of personal information of donors to the National Organization for Marriage to the Huffington Post, Carter voted in support of legislation to prohibit the agency from requiring a tax-exempt organization to include in annual returns the name, address, or any other identifying information of any contributor.
"Congress has been investigating the IRS's treatment of conservative tax-exempt groups for over two years and we still have no answers," Carter said. "We have reviewed millions of pages of documents, conducted interviews, and held hearings to be met with nothing but road blocks and misleading statements in regards to what happened to the Lois Lerner emails. It seems that the only way to ensure the rogue IRS is not able to target individuals is to completely prohibit their ability to collect any information about the identity of donors who contribute to an organization. Americans should not and will not live in fear that their privacy will be violated or that they will be targeted by their own government for their political views. This legislation ensures the beliefs of all Americans are protected."
Carter is a leader in the fight to rein in the IRS. Last year, Carter called for the removal of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen from his position. Later this week, Carter will join his colleagues on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in considering legislation to condemn and censure Commissioner Koskinen for failing to comply with a subpoena and allowing key evidence to be destroyed, failing to truthfully testify under oath and providing false and misleading information to Congress, and failing to notify Congress that key evidence was missing.
