HOUSTON, Texas–Texas Congressmen Louie Gohmert and Bill Flores introduced legislation that offers a $1 million reward for any individual who can recover former IRS director Lois Lerner’s “lost” emails.
An additional $500,000 would be given in exchange for information regarding the destruction of the emails. The Identify and Recover Sent E-mails (IRS) Act (H.R. 4958), if passed, would cut the salaries of IRS employees by 20 percent until the emails are recovered.
Flores told Breitbart Texas that he was inspired to take action after groups in his district were unfairly targeted by the IRS.
“A Tea Party group in my district was one of the first conservative groups to be targeted,” Flores said. “Then one of my donors appeared to be targeted… They’re all frustrated with the IRS. Then when this news [about the lost emails] came out, they were all even more agitated.”
Instead of sitting idly by, Flores decided that something must be done. He said that he came up with a “carrot stick approach” that gives the IRS negative reinforcement if the emails are not surfaced, and positive reinforcement if pertinent information is brought to light.
The Congressman added that he finds it very hard to believe that Lerner’s emails are completely lost and unrecoverable. “You don’t just lose emails under today’s email systems,” he said.
Although Gohmert and Flores have only just started marketing their bill to fellow Congressmen, there is little doubt that it will receive considerable support. “I even think we’ll have some Democrats support it,” Flores said, “They’re scared of what the IRS has done to their reputation.”
Gohmert reportedly said of his proposed legislation, “It seems that each time the IRS has evidence that will either prove with certainty its guilt or innocence, the evidence disappears, which both common sense and the law indicate, the evidence such as emails must have proved the IRS’s impropriety if not outright crimes. It is time the IRS either comes clean, or has a special prosecutor to clean it up. This bill should help in the interim.”
Ultimately, Flores is very confident that the emails will be surfaced.
He told Breitbart Texas, “It just takes one letter or phone call from the IRS to totally ruin a business or hardworking families’ lives. And yet the IRS doesn’t have to follow the same standards that they impose on mainstream America. Citizens should know this bill is just the first step to getting to the bottom to this–we have their backs. Those emails are somewhere and we will find them.”
Follow Kristin Tate @KristinBTate.