However, support for the impeachment is vast among conservative circles outside the halls of Congress.
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WASHINGTON (AP) – Two Republican congressmen formally offered a campaign-season resolution Tuesday to impeach IRS chief John Koskinen, setting the House on course for showdown votes over an effort that rouses conservatives but has no chance of ousting the commissioner from office.
“Any motion to table or refer to a committee is meant to kill the impeachment and should be viewed as a vote against impeachment by that member”, he said in his statement. House leaders now have until Thursday to act.
In addition, the New York Times editorial board called upon House Speaker Paul Ryan to squash the effort because it “threatens to set a unsafe new low in congressional politicking”.
“For years, the IRS has abused its power to target people based on their political views”, Fleming said in a statement.
Fleming said at a “Conversations with Conservatives” event hosted by the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday that he expects the resolution to be considered on the floor late Thursday morning.
It’s possible that House leaders – reluctant to take such a dramatic action – will move to refer the motion to the House Judiciary Committee, which typically has jurisdiction over any impeachment proceedings.
Koskinen did not join the IRS until the end of that year.
“Either way, what they’re doing is punting”, he said. No evidence has turned up suggesting the White House ordered the targeting – though evidence does lead back to the D.C. headquarters of the IRS.
Fleming, Huelskamp, and others charged this could be done through procedural slight of hand such as moving a censure vote against Koskinen before the impeachment vote.
Labrador told his colleagues that the Watergate scandal, which forced President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974, “has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by the Nixon administration” and then concealed from the public during a cover-up. They argue that the commissioner impeded Congress’s investigation into the IRS’ scrutiny of Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status.
Koskinen says the allegations against him are “without merit”.
The far-right Freedom Caucus is turning up the heat on Republican leadership by loudly declaring they will be letting down the American people if they don’t support impeachment of the commissioner.
Gerhardt is among a group of law professors who wrote to Ryan last week, saying “there is no good reason” to fast-track an impeachment vote. “There haven’t been full hearings”. He said Koskinen has passed up “plenty of opportunities” to discuss the matter under oath on Capitol Hill. It’s not because we haven’t asked for the hearings.
“That’s the whole point: Congress doesn’t take action for things that are really obvious no-brainers”, Fleming said.
Many Republicans oppose the effort.
Instead of addressing serious issues facing Americans, like funding for Zika and the opioid crisis, House Republicans are wasting time grandstanding ahead of an election.
Koskinen wasn’t immediately available for comment Tuesday.
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Conservatives say Mr. Koskinen lied to Congress when he claimed he’d produced all of former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner’s available emails, even though his agency’s own inspector general said backup tapes held thousands of messages.
