If you can’t impeach the IRS commissioner, what’s your next move?
For Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO), it would be to take away his salary.
The Congressman introduced an amendment this week to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017 which would remove IRS commissioner John Koskinen from office by taking his salary down to $0.
The idea behind the amendment is to effectively force Koskinen out of office because federal law generally bars federal employees from working for free.
Koskinen probably isn’t working at his job just for the salary, however. According to a 2013 financial disclosure, he is worth between $7.1 million and $27.4 million.
“I experienced IRS abuse first-hand,” Congressman Buck said, referring to his non-profit, Balance America, that Buck says was targeted by the IRS for discrimination.
Buck added, “When Congress then investigated the agency’s behavior, Commissioner Koskinen misled us. This is a serious breach of trust. He works for the American people, and it’s time for the American people to fire him. The IRS would be better off without Commissioner Koskinen showing up to work every day.”
The House has been actively pursuing impeaching Koskinen from office for, among other things, providing false testimony to Congress about Lois Lerner’s emails. Koskinen has said that the allegations against him are baseless.
The move has stirred some debate among legal scholars as to how wise a move this would be since House and Senate leaders have not said they are on board with the idea.
If Koskinen were to be impeached, it would be the first impeachment of an appointed executive-branch official in 140 years.
