Rep. Kelly Condemns Anti-Conservative Regulatory Proposal by IRS
Ways & Means Committee Approves Bill to Stop IRS from Implementing Controversial Proposed 501(c)(4) Rules
Rep. Kelly: “There has been an outrageous attack on 501(c)(4)s. This isn’t made up.”
WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Ways and Means Committee – delivered remarks at this morning’s full committee mark-up hearing at which the committee favorably reported out H.R. 3865, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014, of which Rep. Kelly is a co-sponsor. The hearing featured testimony by Thomas Barthold, chief of staff for the non-partisan Joint Tax Committee.
Highlights of Rep. Kelly’s remarks:
“We’re not talking about anyone other than 501(c)(4)s with this regulation. Not 501(c)(3)s, not 501(c)(5)s, not 501(c)(6)s. It’s all just 501(c)(4)s.”
“A friend of mine who just got done running for the U.S. Senate, a guy named Tom Smith from back in my district in Western Pennsylvania, has a group called the Indiana Armstrong Patriots. It took the Indiana Armstrong Patriots – which is a Tea Party group, by the way – a year and a half to go through the process and be given a 501(c)(4) status. That status has now been revoked, and they’re I think in their [sixth] month now trying to get the status reversed and put back in there.”
“What the chairman has asked about today is a one-year delay on a new regulation that specifically targets the group that have already been targeted. And where I’m confused is that both sides of this group, of this committee, should be very concerned that there is no answers yet on what happened in the IRS. Where did it go from the time where it was supposed to be a couple of rookies in Cincinnati screwing up, which we know now isn’t the case, to all the confusion which we know didn’t exist—but there was a calculated strategy for how to handle this situation? That’s what’s being investigated, is it not?”
“If I remember right, Lady Justice wears a blindfold and she holds a scale. The idea is that she’s supposed to be blind and impartial. … Everything is supposed to be weighed and not looked at in any particular way. So I don’t care what the color of the jelly bean is. That shouldn’t have any effect on it at all.”
“There has been an outrageous attack on 501(c)(4)s. This isn’t made up. As far as being political—yeah, there’s a lot of political things that go on. We just had another stay on the Affordable Care Act for the employer mandate. [Sarcastically:] Now I’m sure that’s not political.”
“I’m a Republican, the folks on the other side are Democrats, but that’s not who they represent in their districts. They represent the American people. So it’s not a Republican issue, it’s not a Democrat issue, or a libertarian issue. ... It’s an issue about fair and equal treatment under the law.”
“This piece today that we’re talking about — all the chairman has asked for is a one-year delay. I would just say that, in most cases, early detections leads to the right kind of correction. If we are at a point right now where we don’t even know yet what the results of the investigation are, but say, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no, no, nothing to be seen here folks, let’s move on,’ — that’s what the American people don’t trust anymore, because they’ve heard it too many times and have found out it’s not true.”
“I would like to see us move this forward today, and let’s move on with the work of the people and making sure that they do feel protected under the law.”
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