A Republican member of the House on Thursday proposed a bill to fire any federal employee who invokes the Fifth Amendment before Congress, a response to IRS official Lois Lerner’s refusal to answer questions during a congressional hearing last month.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) told The Hill that H.R. 2458 “would terminate the employment of any federal employee who refuses to answer questions before a congressional hearing or lies before a congressional hearing.”
“This is a statement which should not be made by federally appointed officials before a congressional hearing if they are faithfully carrying out the duties of their office,” Brooks said in reference to Lerner.
Lerner was roundly criticized by Republicans when she plead the Fifth at a hearing on the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said that Lerner’s decision aroused suspcion, arguing that “you don’t need to plead the Fifth if you’ve done nothing wrong.”
