quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: i would ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session. under the previous order, there will be -- there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to the cloture vote on the the -- on the byron nomination. mr. tester: i ask unanimous consent that all time be yielded

back. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of paul g. byron of florida to be united states district judge for the middle district of florida, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of paul g. byron of florida to be united states district judge for the middle district of florida shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the ayes are 53, the nays are 30. the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, there will now be two minutes -- the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: the judiciary. paul g. byron of florida to be united states district judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to the cloture vote on the mendoza nomination. without objection, all time is yielded back.

the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rile 2269 standing rules was senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of carlos eduardo mendoza of florida to be united states district judge for the middle district of florida. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is: is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of carlos eduardo mendoza of florida to be united states district judge for the middle district of florida, shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the ayes are 53, the nays are 31. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: carlos eduardo mendoza of florida to be united states district judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will now

be two minutes of debate, equally divided, prior to the cloture vote on the bloom nomination. without objection all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of beth bloom of florida to be united states district judge for the southern district of florida, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is: is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of beth bloom of florida to be united states district judge for the southern district of florida shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the ayes are 53, the nays are 31. the motion is approved. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, beth bloom of florida to be united states district judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there now will be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to the cloture vote on the crawford nomination. without objection, all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of geoffrey w. crawford of vermont to be united states district judge for the district of vermont, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived.

the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of geoffrey w. crawford of vermont to be united states district judge for the district of vermont shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the ayes are 52, the

nays are 32. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination. mr. reid: pardon me aivment sorry. the clerk: jeffrey w. crawford of vermont to be united states district judge. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent, mr. president, the senate now proceed to a period of morning business. dhiewrg time, senators be allowed to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to s. res. 481. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 481 designating the month of june 2014 as national post-traumatic stress disorder awareness month. the presiding officer: is there objection to froaght measure? -- to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be

agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, june 24. following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. following any leader remarks, senate will be in a period of morning business until 11:00 a.m. with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each with the time divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. following morning business, the senate proceed to executive session, under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, there will be five roll call votes starting at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. if there is to further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order, following the ten huff minute remarks of the senator from arizona, senator flake. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from arizona. mr. flake: mr. president, i rise today to discuss a matter

of importance not just to arizona but to the people affected across the country by the environmental protection agency's continued -- continuing overreach. namely, i want to talk about air quality standards that are quite simply unattainable and those that penalize states where mother nature -- is not smokestacks, not factories, not evil industrial iists, just motr nature -- quo's these affects to our -- causes these affects to our air quality. let me say from the outset, we all love and deserve to have clean air and when i'm discussing these particular concerns, i want to be clear i am not in favor of pollution, dirty air or asthma. instead, what i am in favor of is just a little more common sense from the e.p.a. now, it won't come as any surprise that most people in arizona, what we realize in arizona is we live in a desert state. we have lots of cactus.

we have scorpions. i was stung just twice just last year. just as in most deserts around the worlgd, w world, we have dit storms. these aren't caused by eroding topsoil or man. they're naturally occurring vearchtses, just like tornadoes or blizzards in other parts of the country. when you fiscal cliff a naturally dusty state, the dust storms sweep across the desert and across state lierntion they can obviously cause local and regional air quality issues. the same goes for living in a forest fire-prone state, which arizona also is. states simply cannot be expected to control these issues. yet despite adopting a -- quote -- "exceptional events rule" in issuing murky guide arns the e.p.a. still forces states to squander resources on these spikes in air pollutants that are outside anyone's control, with no actual improvement to

air quality. the e.p.a.'s reviews to approve that spikes in air quality are the result of naturally occurring events are arbitrary, cumbersome, and they are costly. let me give you an example. in just 2001 -- or, excuse me, 2011 and 2012, the arizona department of air quality, the maricopa association of governments were forced to spend $675,000 and 900 -- i'm sorry. let me start that again. $675,000 and 790 staff hours to prove to e.p.a.'s satisfaction something that anyone with two eyes could readily see -- dust storms trip the e.p.a.'s air quality censors. not pollution, dust storms. the current regulations are entirely up to the e.p.a.'s discretion and they are final

and they are not appealable. but in some cases, such as those in arizona, they are really a violation of common sense as well. that's why i'm introducing the clear act. the clear act will, among other things, require the e.p.a.'s decisions on those events to be based on a preponderance of evidence and to accord deference to states' own findings of when such an event happened. it will all require the e.p.a. to review states' exceptional event documentation within 90 days instead of dragging this process out and to decide which states with exceptional events will be evaluated. this needs to be done, mr. president. i'm also introducing two other bills, the ordeal act and the agency paygo for greenhouse gases act. now, much credit goes to the e.p.a. for successfully reducing air pollution in the past few decades. this has led to benefits for

everyone. but one of the most common pollutants, ozone, the one dealt with by the ordeal act, has presented a nearly endless supply of red tape for states and municipalities for literally decades. when the e.p.a. reduced its permitted ozone standards in 2008, counties across the country that were in -- quote -- "nonattainment status" were forced to enact expensive and complicated compliance plans. now with scant scientific health basis, the e.p.a. wants to further lower ozone emission standards, but there are already 221 counties in 27 states that are noncompliant with the present standards. how will lowering these standards even further help these states comply? and these communities and counties comply? is this e.p.a.'s version of double secret probation? by some estimates, this lowering of ozone standards from 77 --

i'm sorry, 75 parts per billion to 60 parts per billion will cost a whopping $1 trillion per year from 2020-2030. the e.p.a.'s own estimates say that the proposed standard will cost between $25 billion per year at 70 parts per billion to $90 billion per year at 60 parts per billion. it would also cost as many as 7.3 million jobs. now, the rationale for the further reduction in ozone standards is the potential health benefits. the e.p.a. constantly failed to meet its five-year intervals for ozone which results in lawsuits, bad policy and poor analysis when the agency is forced by the courts to produce a new standa standard. my bill, the ordeal act, would provide the e.p.a. more flexibility by doubling the statutory review interval to 10 years. it would also push off any

decision on e.p.a.'s proposal to tighten the ozone standards until 2018, putting that standard on a more realistic 10-year cycle. this will give businesses more certainty. it will give them a more certain regulatory environment, not a possible change every five years. if you can imagine that, having to plan just on a five-year circle for standards that are rarely met and have to be adjusted again. it will also give state air quality agencies the time they need to implement their own plans. now, finally, this administration has set its sights on reducing carbon emissions with the most recent attempt being draconian regulations on existing power plants. despite inevitable job losses and spikes in energy costs. the agency paygo act that i'm introducing would simply give the e.p.a. a taste of its own medicine by requiring the agency to offset the federal cost of any greenhouse gas rules through

equivalent reduction in agency spending. if the e.p.a. proceeds without offsetting these costs from its own budget, the final greenhouse gas rule must be approved by congress. this bill specifically forbids the e.p.a. from denying costs to federal agencies by passing on costs to the federal agency's ratepayers. if capital costs are imposed by the greenhouse gas rule, the e.p.a. must offset those costs or get congress' approval. specifically, this bill would not let underlying agencies, including power generating agencies, such as the western power authority, it would not let them pass alone these costs to -- pass along these costs to consumers. mr. president, the modern e.p.a. has a history of implementing increasingly costly and stringent standards for negligible or even questionable benefit. all three of these bills -- the clear act, the ordeal act, and the agency paygo act -- provide

more certainty than presently exists to states and businesses that have to deal with the e.p.a., and it will hold the agency accountable for its decision-making process. now, i hope my colleagues will join me in supporting these commonsense measures. mr. president, with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. adjourn:

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> members of the house oversight committee waiting. irs commissioner john koskinen will be testifying.

issuing a giant hallmark assignment for the commissioner with more than 50 technical questions and the answers to those questions expected before this hearing tonight. as we wait for the testimony to begin, we will see some of the request for a special investigation into irs e-mails. >> let me ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be initiated. >> without objection. >> madame president, i just returned a couple of hours ago to washington from indiana. although last several months, as i have been visiting in talking to hoosiers i continue to hear concerns, and i have concerns, frankly, about this wide deficit between the american people that i represent and i think pretty much across this country and

washington and confidence in washington, confidence that they are getting the straight story, the hard truth. not a lot of good things over the last several months have come out of this body or a member of washington agencies. the trusted gap is ever widening as we careen from scandal to scandal and incident to incident, broken promises made by top officials, false statements being made, the latest of which is no this resurrection again of the irs scandal. let me say, it has been said that no agency in washington is less forgiving than the internal revenue service. no agency in washington has more power over the american people than the internal revenue

service. if there is an agency that needs to be a political and not engage in anything that could be even deemed political, even the irs, the power they have to destroy a reputation as a destroyer finances the way business, you see, the way the work is that they determine that you are in violation, you are in a sense reversing what is sacrosanct in america, innocent until proven guilty. under the irs you're guilty until proven innocent. you have to go up, hire lawyers, accountants can sit down with them and prove that you are not violating their roles. that is upside down. you cook know, one of our founding principles that says the united states apart from every other nation, almost every nation and that makes him i think, this an exceptional nation is the first amendment to

the constitution. under that first amendment americans aren't constitutionally guaranteed the right to organize around issues and values that they believe in. [silence] >> the committee will come to order. the oversight committee a exists to secure two fundamental principles. first, americans have a right to know that the money washington through the irs takes from them is will spend. second, americans deserve an efficient and effective government that works for them. our duty of the oversight and government reform committee is going in fact, to protect these rights. our solemn responsibility is the old government accountable the taxpayers because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from a government. our job is to work tirelessly in

partnership with citizen what start to deliver the facts of the american people and bring genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy. without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at a time. without objection so ordered. the committee meets today as we continue our effort to get the treat them the full truth on the obstruction by the irs and the targeting of americans because of their conservative political beliefs. and the irs commissioner john koskinen appeared before this committee in march he promised that he would produce what this committee had made its top priority, all of the e-mails by lois lerner. the commissioner made these promises without qualification or limitation.

he even reiterated that statement to the ranking member when asked. would you please go ahead and play the video for reflection and memory? >> i requested that you produce all of the mails by lois lerner to this committee. she won't talk to us, so these e-mails of the next best substitute, and all we are asking is it was the e-mails. our subpoena says all of them. when we say all, we want every single e-mail in the timeframe in the subpoena that was sent to you. >> who will talk about lois lerner, for e-mails. how long will it take you to produce the mails from lois lerner that don't involve 601 material systems .. >> says she did not meet -- >> do you have people in this is

a responsibility that race pressing over political commentary and a government in no? i think we ought to be entitled to all of it. will you commit here today to provide all the males? >> we have never said we would not. >> i take you at your word. you want to provide, this would be something you would go ahead and get off the table as quickly as possible. are you are you not going to provide all of the e-mail by lois lerner. >> we will do that. >> for the record on behalf of people on both sides of the spoken the mb lois lerner, all the e-mail by lois lerner is the highest current priority of this committee and will remain so as long as i am chairman. the settlement has said he is willing to produce the documents. we have almost every member now asking for those documents. >> all e-mails. >> i think you understand the

committee views those e-mails as the highest error the? >> are you going to provide the documents? >> yes. >> the committee requested all the in else. the commissioner told us you would provide the mall. we requested them over a year ago. we, in fact, subpoenaed them in august in order to make it clear that we were not being complied with. again, a new one when you became commissioner in february of 2014. transparency did not compel the irs to tell the truth about the lost e-mail. you worked to cover of the fact that there were missing e-mails and came forward to fess up bali on friday afternoon after you had effectively been caught red

handed. i am struck that your acknowledgment of missing females came just two weeks after we had found some of them at the justice department's. when you were looking for e-mails one of the questions said they will be did you looked at the justice department where she had said over and over 1 million documents including some that were 6103? did you ever give the committee the courtesy of a direct communication about missing e-mails after your false or misleading testimony? and said, your staff shared a communication then you made to a senate committee controlled by the president's party. in your previous testimony u.s. said it might take years to deliver all of these e-mails.

welcome back. has not been two years. did you hope you could run out the clock on the scandal? perhaps you thought congress would never realize there were missing e-mails until we found them at the justice department. i called you to testify tonight because the american people deserve answers about what happened to the males of lois lerner and why the irs a hidden this for years. this hiding did not begin, and i repeat, did not begin on your watch. clearly the missing documents were known by many people who have jobs at the irs today it under your predecessor and your predecessors predecessor. the fact that her e-mails or ever transferred out of the exclusive custody of the irs so

that they could be lost or destroyed by lois lerner should concern all of us. the federal records act, and we will meet tomorrow with the archivists, the federal records act invasion that import documents will be maintained not just for investigations of congress but, in fact dry in perpetuity with the benefit of the american people. this event in history like watergate, and teapot dome, and many other historic events will be studied by future generations without the benefit of many of the dots and actions of los where and others of the heiress. i subpoenas you here tonight because frankly i am sick and tired of your game playing in response to congressional oversight. you, commissioner, the president's hand-picked man to restore trust and accountability

of the irs testifying under oath that you would produce all of the e-mails subpoenaed by this committee. before you testified, you took in know if you will take again tonight to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. mr. commissioner, at a minimum you did not tell the whole truth that you knew on that day. you give your commitment to produce all the mills to the committee. you give your word, sir, and we are just a little questioning what your word is worth if, in fact, you cannot enlighten us of what you know that is germane to our inquiry whether or not it is explicitly asked. do we have to grill you for days or weeks or months with every possible question, every possible way something can be asked, or will the meaning of a question mean that you will, to the best of your ability telling give us a true and complete

answer? the american people have no trust in the irs by comparison to just a few years ago. the american people have never loved the irs. no one does of the organization that takes surtaxes and if they do not feel they got the right amount come back and have huge power over your life. it is hard to love the irs, but it should not be hard to trust the irs. the american people deserve this agency which was previously believed to be non-partisan, they need to be able to trust that it will once again become non-partisan, non-political. your agency has a set of rules for taxpayers and apparently another set for themselves. the american people understand that if they cannot prove that they did the right thing in their tax return five, six, and

seven years ago it will be disallowed the land they will pay taxes and penalty. welcome in fact of you maintain only six months of records and that apparently count on people good and bad to maintain documents they think are important beyond that and do so without safeguards to protect the iraqi people from the laws of those documents. commissioner, tonight you will say that you have produced dozens of documents. it will be an impressive number. quite frankly, that production is pushing a button and printing documents out and that having people scratch out almost everything of value, in many cases. it is not producing the documents that you don't want to produce, the documents that embarrassing. the fact is, it is the last documents, not the first documents that normally do as good, the ones we receive the night before depose someone up and tell us things we have waited months or years for.

i know that tonight will be difficult, and it deserves to be difficult for both sides. we have a problem with you, and you have a problem with maintaining credibility. again and, you promised to produce documents and did not. you promised to be forthcoming candid and were not. and our first meeting my subcommittee chairman who will also be making an opening statement irritated you because you felt he questioned your integrity. that offended you at that time and, quite frankly, give you a bit of an apology that he meant no harm and it was just his style. temecula quite frankly, i wish i could take that back and i wish that i could say what i will say to you tonight. you believe you are in trust before you came here and it was yours to lose. i believe you needed to write our trust and you fail that that task. either way, the american people

do not believe the irs is dealing fairly with them in this investigation. with that i recognize the ranking member. >> i want to get right down to the heart of the accusation that republicans a been making for the past week. it is interesting the you have been accused of false testimony or misleading testimony and accused actually, if it is false testimony, of committing a crime what are we really saying? what are the republicans here saying? they're saying that lois lerner intentionally, intentionally

destroyed. nell's and that irs officials helped search covered up. here are some of the accusations being made. june 13th it was suggested that this was a nefarious conduct that went much higher than lois lerner. june 18th he said, the e-mails of a prominent official to not just disappear without a trace a less that was the intention. june 19th, lois lerner made the decision not to have this drive recovered. and just this morning he said,

the justice department, irs, and warehouse are interested in her succeeding in hiding what she is hiding. the chairman has made these accusations on national television without first obtaining a briefing from itea officials that the ira's who could have explained what really happened, and he made them before hearing from the errors commissioner. he testified last friday before the ways and means committee. now that we have the facts that sell a completely different story of richard, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. our committee has obtained no evidence to support the insurance claim that lois lerner intentionally destroy the dream

now. to the contrary, we have now obtained contemporaneous evidence from 2011 showing the exact opposite, that this was a technological problem with her computer. truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth. they went to great lengths to recover the data. at the end of that process they could not do so. also testifying last week that the irs took extraordinary steps of sending your hard drive to

experts in the forensics lab of the ira's criminal unrest addition division and even they could not recover data. a church, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. on august 5th 2011 there was an e-mail with the bedouins, and it said, unfortunately the news is not good. the sectors on the hard drive was bad with major data of recoverable. i am sorry. everyone involved try their best . so if anyone wants the evidence of what happened in this case, now we have it. i ask unanimous consent that all of these e-mails from july 19th, july 20th to august 1st to an august 5th be admitted into the hearing record. >> without objection.

>> these e-mails are all from 2011 if, well for a congressional investigation began. using inappropriate search terms according to the is but general. i did not say that. his as director-general of to it now we can certainly take issue with why the ira's did not have back up space for this date five. as mr. koskinen testified last week irs policy was to recycle backup tapes after six months to save money. he also explain this policy to say will back up data in 2013.

the fact is that there are long standing problems with electronic record-keeping and federal agencies. the bush of ministration bought millions of intel's relating to the u.s. attorney firing, the airing of a covert cia agents. then two dozen seven the white house spokeswoman admitted that they lost 5 billion the bills she said at the time we're trying to fix it. there has been progress, but we can always do better. approximately a year-and-a-half ago ranchers the electronic

record preservation act which would have required federal agencies to preserve e-mail records electric and. although this committee voted on a bipartisan basis to approve by legislation chief it has widely been set. i believe our committee as a responsible efforts all the facts. there should not be a race against of the republicans to hold the first year in front of a camera and it should not be a ludicrous competition but some hyperbolic sound bite based upon the least about to evidence. this case republicans have been tried desperately and unsuccessfully for both a year

intentionally destroying documents relevant to the criminal investigation is said absolutely not. think you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you. i might note for the record as i get to the chairman of the subcommittee, we send you those interrogatories 48 hours plus ago level about need to have an excess of one hearing. is likely that we will reassess the series tonight. in no way addresses the interrogatories'. with that i go to the chairman of the subcommittee. >> willis lerner but with committee staff and said there is no targeting going on. i can assure you there is no targeting. then they tried to spin it in an unprecedented fashion. try to put her spin on this

story. then they try to blame someone else. they attacked the messenger. ballet hide the evidence. in the third rate following the script, the bat gile is said he denies it, spins, blends someone else. he always said to officer, did not serve a gun of the river. i don't know what happened. this would be laughable if it was not so serious. here is one big difference. the common criminal the street and a scandal, one huge, important difference. the betty l. industry does not give to have his friend run the investigation. i will talk to about this until we get to the truth.

the fact that a bank staff contributed to the president's campaign is running the service station is joke. the fact of the fbi released to the "wall street journal" that no one will be prosecuted is wrong, and the fact that the president of the united states, the highest official in the executive branch goes on national television and says there is no corruption is wrong. the bet that is not good to have his friends run investigation like we see here. i hope, have been hoping that someone in this administration would have the courage to step up and say, it is time for a special prosecutor. five weeks ago 26 democrats had the courage to step up and vote with every single republican. i would out of nothing more happens that the guide who heads

the agency for the targeting of people for exercising their first amendment's, i would hope denim and of that package show his independence, he really wants to establish, have the courage to do what 26 democrats to five weeks ago and say it is time for special prosecutors of a we can get to the truth in the past this sham of an investigation. with that i yield back. >> i would be happy to yield. >> okay. we now go to the settlement from virginia. >> thank you, mr. chairman. fis ul understand that the stage is set. this is about theater. fair play, presumption of innocence, civility, respect for

a monarch public servant who is serving this country yet again out the window because there is an agenda that presupposes sibila to based in part of supposition compared via, a conspiracy theory, which fires up the base of the of the party and plays well honor arabia ... this is at the expense of the truth, at the expense of any semblance of bipartisan cooperation, at the expense of trying to fix problems where we find. you don't think for a minute that part of the solution here

is to provide the irs with more resources to address the touchy problem. your update format that the solution contemplated by -- might involve more resources or to say nothing of money left on the table of the government. i first met you back in 98- 98-99-2000. it was nit problem. the stroke of midnight are banking systems of collapse, red lights would go off, all of our computer systems. we had to make investments to make sure that did not happen.

you were the yankee's czar. i saw then encino and honorable public servant. you were cited for example reservists and integrity and personal honor. the fact that you would be subjected tonight to the brides of an innuendo and accusation back to buy nothing for the purpose of political theater is reckless and disgraceful and brings enormous dishonor on this committee. i want you to know personally to there are a number of lawsuits still on a year public-service, respect your integrity, and

understand this dynamic and they're willing to call it what it is. i hope none of that shakes your faith and your value and your years of service. the hope you will continue irritate here to clean up lead and problems are and try to make the address more dickcissel, accountable, and efficient agency. him thank you for your service. thank you for being here tonight i yield back. >> vicki, and. we now go to our one and only witness for this evening. john koskinen is the commissioner of the internal revenue service.

to use always wear are from the testimony you will give will be the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? thank you. please be seated. the witness answered in the affirmative. you are the only witness have some explaining to do. take such time as any. >> thank you, chairman, ranking member, members of the committee, thank you for the average into the to appear before you this evening to provide you with an update on recent irs document productions to congress. the irs over the past year made a massive document production in response to inquiries from congress relating to the investigation of the processing and review of publications for tax-exempt status as described in the may 2013 report from the

treasury as merger general for tax demonstration. this committee has received over 600,000 pages of material redacted to protect taxpayers' permission. the tax-writing committees have received over 835,000 pages about redacted material. as of last friday the tax-writing community has already had more than 27,000 e-mails from the computer account and more than 18,000 in melson other custodial accounts for which lois lerner was an author or recipient. -understand that this committee and the other investigators were provided beginning last fall with copies of e-mails indicating that she had experience difficulties with her computer three years ago. it should be clear that no one has been keeping this information from congress. the irs expects to complete its production in an redacted form by the end of the lot. as soon as possible thereafter we will complete reaction of those e-mails that produce them

to this committee. at that time this committee will have all the rales, 43,000 of them, that we have from our computer and e-mail account from january 2009-may 2013. in addition 24 bosnia mills whether custodial accounts for a total of 67,000. the irs reviewed the eve l. available where her custodial computer account which was limited the search terms developed in collaboration with the investigating committees. it was not clear whether there were overlooked, missing, or had other technical issues involved. irs information technology professionals identify documents that indicated she experienced a computer failure in 2011. in mid march 2014 the irs focused on redacting materials

for the bond tax writers and processor rest for production. as we reviewed additional emil's the irs review team learned additional facts which occurred long before these congressional investigations opened. during this review we learned that, as noted in two dozen 11 the irs information technology division tried using multiple processes to recover information's stored her computer's hard file. pity he still has your drive, wants to exhaust all avenues to recover the data before sending it to the are drove cemetery. unfortunately after receiving assistance from several highly skilled technicians including

h-p experts he still cannot recover the data. told by e-mail on august 1st 2011 as a last resort reset your hard drive to the irs karl investigation forensic lab to attempt to the recovery. in an e-mail already read, advice on for so in the news is not good. the sectors of the hard drive or bad which major data are recoverable. i am sorry. everyone involved tried their best. a lot of the issue they took multiple steps to assess the situation, and assured bill e-mails have been overlooked a lost during the investigation, is producing as much e-mail as they have for which she was an author or recipient. as the search for and production of the bells was concluding s those working on this matter to the terminal of a computer systems of the other 82 custodian said experiencing a similar difficulties.

after the ira's publicly to the public report was delivered it was determined last week the several additional custodians mary's parents are drop barriers during the search. it is not unusual for computers and they were to fail and the light of the ag equipment employees often have to use in the continual cuts in the budget fees. since january 1 over 2,000 irs employees have suffered crashes. it is important to remember our draft charter does of american men of all or even any rows about lost or cannot be reconstitute. a still assessing what affected had of the custodians, although some apparently lost none. the question as to what in hell's outside the agency prior to april 11 / 2011 are not end

the name nelson to other employees during that time. last week and understand the white house and the department of treasury stated that they were providing all of their lois lerner e-mails which should help fill those gaps and answer that question. the treasury inspector general for tax investigation has already began an investigation, and as report will provide in the pad a review of the situation concerning the computer crash three years ago. we're committed to working cooperatively and transparently with this committee and six other investigations going on and will continue to provide you with updates. this concludes my testimony. >> thank you. commissioner, do you remember the name. [inaudible] >> i do not. >> grew rose one. >> no. >> well, now on trial for ordering his wife.

before that this committee discovered that he had wrongfully received 500 by in dollars in contracts from the irs. it gregory rose men took the fifth to one of your employees to help get in that contract. when you go all you might want to see congresswoman duck worth howl his ankle that he heard of prep school feels because he claimed to be a disabled veteran some charges seven years later, and his old college buddy help him get that contract. at that time and now we rely on the ability to recover intel cuts as part of the chair discovery. take dick russell george cover urology relies upon that. tomorrow we will year from the head of the national archive who relies upon your organization to comply with federal law.

the question i have for you is, how can we expect you have servers that run and capture every e-mail and announced. how can we sit here and expect to trust organization in which the local hard drive is supposed to be the only place that in never existed? >> that is not the only place. they're is a well on our system in the service been found to produce. anyone know that existed anywhere, even any hard copy of official records has been or will be provided to this committee. >> in 2011 when our drive show, a few were properly backing up all the information required under the federal records act or to include the information she selected to have apparently deleted from the same server, you would have had all of those

in a house nearby airport new? >> all e-mails are not official records. all the bells reflecting agency actions -- >> point your right or do. >> are about that. >> no problem. the bottom line is that you apparently were not captured all in bells. your allow her to delete e-mails but retain e-mails so the six months after -- merges sought to assure we get the record straight -- 61 factors and moves them you were no longer in possession of those. >> note. >> what is correct? >> each employee is limited to basically 6,000 in the house that they can all learn their e-mail account stored on the agency's server. the reason their is a limitation is the agency does not have servers large enough to sustain the retention of all e-mails. the decision was made two years ago when people looked at that

and it was determined it would cost anywhere from ten to $30 million to upgrade the system so that all the bells on the server would be preserved. because of budget constraints the agency was operating under two years ago the decision was made -- >> almost 2 billion nit is your budget. -- is of the retention of key documents that the american people need to count on like whether or not there being none as they treated by your employees and especially someone of such a high level, is a bad, in fact a library that should have allowed for four judge? >> if we have the right resources there would be a lot of perris. >> the american people should believe if they don't have the resources to pay their taxes they should not pay their taxes because of the irs does not the resources it will keep records. resources are question of

whether not you maintain key documents. let me just go in to 110 in my limited time. you came here and said, put it up on the board as you did today the you would tell the truth kamal truth, nothing. you saw that montage in the opening. you knew there was a problem with some of for a bells when you came to testify in march, isn't that true? >> i have been told there was an issue and no wonder the ramifications. >> juju recent to reasonably believe what e-mail never lost? >> no. >> you knew there was a problem is hot. >> someone said there is an odd development and the way the bells are showing got. the first of mind that they have been lost from her account was in april. >> when you knew in april that, you went into all political

appointees at treasury, did you -- >> i did not. >> you did not. >> i did not. >> who did you tell. >> no one. i was a biased. >> you did not tell your idea of some documents would not be provided? did you cause someone to find out at the white house, treasury? >> i did not. >> i ask a question. >> and i answered it. >> you did not cause anyone to find out. >> i absolutely did not correct he told us all the wells will be provided. when he discovered they did not you did not come back and informed us parts all zero of what we have will be provided. the bus there were provide you ino's the disappeared. as a magical word to that of be happy to know about it. we're providing e-mails. the fact that three years ago some, not all, but some were not available to buy never said i would provide the rebels we did

not have. in fact to all we will provide you 24,000 in knows -- >> my time has expired, and i have lost my patience with you. whenever to the ranking member. >> so what you to talk about resources. he started to say something about resources. >> what it of faxes we have a wide range of responsibilities. reality budget has been cut. this year's budget for 2014 required $300 million just for the implementation of the affordable care act. congress provided us zero. 300 million to instituted such a tremendous had to be taken from other programs. ..

>> lois lerner e-mailed someone and said i quote i am taking advantage of your offer to recapture my lost personal files. my computer skills are basic so nothing fancy. but there were some documents in the files that were irreplaceable. whatever