WASHINGTON — Two Republican congressmen formally offered a campaign-season resolution Tuesday to impeach IRS chief John Koskinen, setting the House on course for showdown votes over an effort that rouses conservatives but has no chance of ousting the commissioner from office.
The proposal by conservative Reps. John Fleming, R-La., and Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., is expected to face votes Thursday in which its fate is unclear. With solid opposition from Democrats and resistance from many Republicans who consider it excessive and politically damaging, the measure might end up being killed and replaced by a censure motion that would scold Koskinen but leave him in his job.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines in June to censure Koskinen.
“Censure does nothing,” Fleming, who is running for the Senate, told reporters Tuesday. “Impeachment makes a much stronger statement than censure. It says in the opinion of the House, John Koskinen should lose his job.”
Because the issue has so divided Republicans, GOP lawmakers will meet privately Thursday to discuss how to handle it.
Even if the House musters a majority to impeach Koskinen — the equivalent of indicting him — Republicans would have no chance of winning the two-thirds majority required to convict him in the Senate. The GOP has just 54 of that chamber’s 100 seats.
In a formality, Fleming read the four-page resolution on the House floor, accusing him of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the constitutional standard for impeachment. The move is certain to draw attention to Fleming, among 24 candidates running for the Senate in his state.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., called the impeachment drive “totally unjustified” and said Democrats will oppose it unanimously.
The effort, backed by the roughly 40-member-strong House Freedom Caucus, underscores that conservative group’s willingness to make life difficult for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who has taken a neutral stance.
With presidential and congressional elections less than two months away, top Republicans have shown no enthusiasm for putting Congress through a partisan, time-consuming impeachment process for a little-known bureaucrat.
