IRS targeting violated employee contract against political coercion

June 4, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement calling attention to a 2009 National Treasury Employees Union contract agreement that forbade political coercion at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and stated “Employees should be protected against arbitrary action, personal favoritism, or coercion for partisan political purposes; and prohibited from using their official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election or a nomination for election”:

“Obama’s IRS in Washington, D.C., by directing the political targeting by the agency against the tea party and other groups, may have compelled employees to violate their own contractual agreement. In part this is ironic, but it also perhaps explains why some Cincinnati employees had such strong misgivings about the targeting, as revealed recently in sworn testimony.

“This testimony and the agreement are a testament to the scrupulous standards that the American people expect from public employees, particularly from those enforcing the taxing power. Never again should such abuses be allowed to occur, and we urge more employees to come forward to ensure those who are directly responsible for the targeting are held to account.

“Moreover, since officials in the Obama Administration knew about the targeting long before it became public, a special counsel must be appointed to ensure that those who violated the public trust by engaging in political targeting are brought to justice.”

Attachments:

2009 National Treasury Employees Union contract agreement at http://www.nteu92.org/NA2.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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