Does Anyone Really Think The IRS Needs More To Do?

Today I delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor in support of the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, introduced by Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). This bill would prevent the IRS from enacting regulations allowing for the suppression of Americans’ First Amendment rights.

The full video can be seen here. Excerpts are below:

I don't know anybody that thinks [the IRS] needs more to do, particularly when it comes to discriminating against people based upon their political affiliations and their desire to engage in debate in the arena and to advocate their views.

What these proposed rules are going to do, they are going to institutionalize the role of the IRS as the speech police, something we ought to avoid like the plague. We ought to make sure that people of all ideological and political affiliations are free to engage in their constitutional rights of association and of political speech.

The last thing we need to do is to support the IRS becoming the speech police and suppressing the constitutional protected rights of the American people.