GOP Senators Want IRS to Cite Legal Grounds for Demanding Donor Lists of Tea Party Groups

Senate Republicans want to know if the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has any legal standing to demand donor information from various Tea Party and conservative groups, which the IRS apparently is pursuing.

“We remain concerned that the IRS is requesting the names of donors and contributors to organizations that apply for tax-exempt status,” says the Senate letter sent to IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Schulman on Monday. “In doing so, the IRS appears to be circumventing the statutory privacy protections that Congress has long provided donors.”

The letter is signed by Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah; Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky; John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas; Jon Kyl of Arizona; Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee; Mike Enzi of Wyoming; John Thune of South Dakota and Pat Roberts of Kansas. McConnell is the Senate minority leader and Hatch is the ranking member of the Finance Committee with oversight responsibility of the IRS.

 More