Huelskamp expects IRS impeachment vote next week

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) says he still intends to hold a vote on impeaching IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for next week.

“It only takes one,” Huelskamp, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters Thursday. “We’re going to have a vote next week.”

{mosads}Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) reached a deal late Wednesday to delay the expected vote on an impeachment resolution. Under the agreement, the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week that Koskinen was invited to attend.

But while there has been some suggestion that a vote on impeachment was going to be delayed until after the November elections, Huelskamp said that that’s not his intention.

“I would be very disappointed if they waited till November or December or next year,” he said.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday he had not taken part in the negotiations but that the agreement pushed any possible impeachment vote until after the elections.

“My understanding of the agreement that was reached was in lieu of the vote, they are going to have the hearing. In lieu of a vote before November is the hearing,” Ryan said at his weekly news conference.

Huelskamp lost his primary election over the summer to a candidate backed by establishment Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He said that his desire for an impeachment vote is not about his loss and is about Congress holding Koskinen accountable.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), another member of the Freedom Caucus, said he thinks the Judiciary Committee will take further steps following next week’s hearing.

“I believe that the evidence will be compelling enough next week that it will prompt further action on behalf of the Judiciary Committee beyond just next Wednesday’s hearing,” he said.

Huelskamp suggested that Koskinen would invoke the Fifth Amendment at next week’s hearing. But Meadows disagreed because the hearing is not a criminal proceeding.