(Washington, DC) – Dr. Charles Boustany (R-Lafayette) supported passage H.R. 5053, the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act introduced by Representative Peter Roskam (R-IL). The bill prohibits the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from requiring a tax-exempt organization to include the name, address, or other identifying information of any contributor in annual returns.

Boustany spoke in support of H.R. 5053 on the House floor today.

Speaking on the House floor in support of the bill, Boustany said: “Back in 2012 when I was Oversight Subcommittee Chairman on Ways & Means, I started the investigation into the IRS’s unconstitutional targeting of conservative groups for their political beliefs… Taxpayers deserve to know whether the IRS is violating their privacy. This bill furthers that effort by preventing the IRS from targeting non-profits, prohibiting the agency from collecting the identity of donors who contribute to these organizations.

“The IRS still operates under the shadow of a scandal in which it admitted to targeting organizations based on their political beliefs… To successfully carry out its mission, the IRS must be viewed as an unbiased arbiter of the law. It cannot do that without coming clean. H.R. 5053 is a necessary step to require more accountability and transparency at the IRS, and I urge my colleagues to support this critical bill.”

Boustany launched the original investigation into the IRS as Chairman of the House Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee after conservative groups approached him with complaints of unlawful targeting by the agency. Boustany authored three bills to bring greater transparency and accountability to the IRS that passed the House in 2014. The bills are:

Ø H.R. 5418: Prohibiting officers and employees of the IRS from using personal email accounts to conduct official business.

Ø H.R. 5419: Providing a right to an administrative appeal relating to adverse determinations of tax-exempt status by the IRS of certain organizations.

Ø H.R. 5420: Permitting the release of information regarding the status of an investigation to aggrieved individuals or organizations.