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EXECUTIVE OVERREACH IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS (PART II)—IRS ABUSE, WELFARE REFORM, AND OTHER ISSUES HEARING BEFORE THE EXECUTIVE OVERREACH TASK FORCE OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION APRIL 19, 2016 Serial No. 114–71 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://judiciary.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 99–839 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia, Chairman F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan Wisconsin JERROLD NADLER, New York LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas ZOE LOFGREN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas DARRELL E. ISSA, California STEVE COHEN, Tennessee J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., STEVE KING, Iowa Georgia TRENT FRANKS, Arizona PEDRO R. PIERLUISI, Puerto Rico LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas JUDY CHU, California JIM JORDAN, Ohio TED DEUTCH, Florida TED POE, Texas LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah KAREN BASS, California TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania CEDRIC RICHMOND, Louisiana TREY GOWDY, South Carolina SUZAN DelBENE, Washington RAU´ L LABRADOR, Idaho HAKEEM JEFFRIES, New York BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island DOUG COLLINS, Georgia SCOTT PETERS, California RON DeSANTIS, Florida MIMI WALTERS, California KEN BUCK, Colorado JOHN RATCLIFFE, Texas DAVE TROTT, Michigan MIKE BISHOP, Michigan SHELLEY HUSBAND, Chief of Staff & General Counsel PERRY APELBAUM, Minority Staff Director & Chief Counsel EXECUTIVE OVERREACH TASK FORCE STEVE KING, Iowa, Chairman F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., STEVE COHEN, Tennessee Wisconsin JERROLD NADLER, New York DARRELL E. ISSA, California ZOE LOFGREN, California LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas JIM JORDAN, Ohio HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., TED POE, Texas Georgia JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah JUDY CHU, California TREY GOWDY, South Carolina TED DEUTCH, Florida RAU´ L LABRADOR, Idaho CEDRIC RICHMOND, Louisiana RON DeSANTIS, Florida SCOTT PETERS, California KEN BUCK, Colorado MIKE BISHOP, Michigan PAUL B. TAYLOR, Chief Counsel JAMES J. PARK, Minority Counsel (II) C O N T E N T S APRIL 19, 2016 Page OPENING STATEMENTS The Honorable Steve King, a Representative in Congress from the State of Iowa, and Chairman, Executive Overreach Task Force ............................... 1 The Honorable Steve Cohen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Tennessee, and Ranking Member, Executive Overreach Task Force .......... 3 The Honorable Bob Goodlatte, a Representative in Congress from the State of Virginia, and Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary ................................. 14 The Honorable John Conyers, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, and Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary ......... 15 WITNESSES Cleta Mitchell, Partner, Foley and Lardner Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 17 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 20 David E. Bernstein, George Mason University Foundation Professor, George Mason University School of Law Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 32 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 35 Emily Hammond, Associate Dean for Public Engagement & Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 47 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 49 Andrew M. Grossman, Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute, and Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 53 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 56 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING Material submitted by the Honorable Steve Cohen, a Representative in Con- gress from the State of Tennessee, and Ranking Member, Executive Over- reach Task Force .................................................................................................. 5 OFFICIAL HEARING RECORD UNPRINTED MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD Report titled ‘‘No Evidence of White House Involvement or Political Motivation in IRS Screening of Tax-Exempt Applicants,’’ submitted by the Honorable Steve Cohen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Tennessee, and Ranking Member, Executive Overreach Task Force. This report is available at the Com- mittee and can also be accessed at: http://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=104807 (III) EXECUTIVE OVERREACH IN DOMESTIC AF- FAIRS (PART II)—IRS ABUSE, WELFARE RE- FORM, AND OTHER ISSUES TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EXECUTIVE OVERREACH TASK FORCE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY Washington, DC. The Task Force met, pursuant to call, at 2:29 p.m., in room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Steve King (Chair- man of the Task Force) presiding. Present: Representatives King, Goodlatte, Issa, Gohmert, Jordan, Poe, Gowdy, Labrador, DeSantis, Buck, Bishop, Cohen, Conyers, Johnson, and Deutch. Staff Present: (Majority) Paul Taylor, Chief Counsel, Sub- committee on the Constitution and Civil Justice; Zachary Somers, Parliamentarian & General Counsel, Committee on the Judiciary; Tricia White, Clerk, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice; (Minority) James Park, Minority Counsel, Subcommittee on the Constitution & Civil Justice; Susan Jensen, Senior Counsel; Matthew Morgan, Professional Staff Member; and Veronica Eligan, Professional Staff Member. Mr. KING. The Executive Overreach Task Force will come to order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess of the Task Force at any time. And I’ll begin with my opening statement. At our first Task Force hearing, we explored how Congress itself, over the past many decades, has acted or not acted in ways that have tended to cede its legislative power to the executive branch. Contrary to our Founders’ original intentions, our second hearing focused on just—on just some of the many examples in which the President has exercised sometimes sheer will to wrest legislative authority from the United States Congress. Our third hearing today explores even more such abuses. One of the most egregious abuses in the executive branch’s handling of the Internal Revenue Service, which was used to restrict the ability of organizations dedicated to educating people on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to obtain task-exempt status that they are allowed by law. (1) 2 A report by the Treasury Department’s own Inspector General found that organizations that were involved in educating on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were singled out for adverse tax treatment by the Internal Revenue Service. Other groups with the term ‘‘progressive’’ in their name were not subject to the same ad- verse treatment. Adding to the horror of the IRS’ abuse of its regulatory authority to favor political supporters of the President is research indicating that politically biased favorable treatment may have significantly affected the 2012 Presidential election. Researchers at the Amer- ican Enterprise Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School of Gov- ernment found that Republican candidates in the 2010 elections enjoyed huge success when organizations educating people on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were left unfetterred by the IRS. That cycle brought the Republican party some 3 million to 6 mil- lion additional votes in House races. As the researchers concluded, that success was not the result of a few days of work by an elected official or two, but it involved activists all over the country who spent the year-and-a-half leading up to the midterm elections by volunteering, organizing, donating, and rallying. Much of these grassroots activities were centered around 501(c)(4)s, which, according to our research, were an important component of Republican success at cycle. The researchers con- cluded that if those grassroots activities had continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010 and had their effect on the 2012, it would have been similar to that seen in 2010. They would have brought the Republican party as many as 5 to 81⁄2 million votes compared to Obama’s victory margin of 5 million. But that didn’t happen. Instead, in March of 2010, the IRS decided to single out for spe- cial adverse treatment groups that educated citizens on the Con- stitution and the Bill of Rights that contained the word ‘‘patriot’’ in their names or that otherwise indicated subjects unappealing to the current Administration. For the next 2 years, the IRS approved the applications of only four such groups, delaying all others while subjecting the applicants to highly intrusive, intimidating requests for information regarding their activities, their membership, their contacts, their Facebook posts, and private thoughts. As the researchers found, ‘‘As a consequence, the

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