Tax hearing room<br>never reserved

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Tax hearing room
never reserved
Official claims no prior knowledge of congressional forum

Posted: January 30, 2002
1:00 am Eastern

By Jon Dougherty
© 2009 WorldNetDaily.com

An official responsible for scheduling events at the House Science and Technology Committee Hearing Room in Washington, D.C., says he knew nothing about a "tax honesty" forum that organizers believed had previously been scheduled, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The official, Jeff Donald, told WND that neither Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., a member of the House Science Committee who agreed last year to chair the forum, nor a member of his staff had contacted Donald to reserve the room, either for the original date of Sept. 24-25, 2001, or next month's rescheduled date of Feb. 27-28.

The forum's first date was canceled following the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I got a fax last Friday announcing the [tax forum], and I knew the room was already booked for other events," Donald – who said he'd been scheduling the room "for years" – told WorldNetDaily. In fact, he said, "the address listed [for the forum] was '2320 Rayburn,' which is actually our staff offices."

Donald said he then called a contact number on the fax and told a person who answered, "We're completely booked for those dates."

However, Lisa Wright, a spokeswoman for Bartlett's office, said the congressman did reserve the room, but that the schedule might not have shown it was reserved specifically for the tax forum.

"When a member of Congress reserves a room, you don't have to say what it's for," she told WorldNetDaily. "We reserved the room and it was reserved for Congressman Bartlett, but then we canceled the reservation."

When asked if the room had been reserved for both dates, Wright said she couldn't specifically recall "that far back," but added that she believed both dates had initially been reserved.

"As far as the Science Committee was concerned, they would have had a reference to the room reservation by Congressman Bartlett," she said.

But in a follow-up call to Donald, the long-time Science Committee staffer confirmed that Bartlett had nothing scheduled for the dates in question.

"There were staff meetings and an oceans group scheduled last September," but "nothing for Congressman Bartlett," Donald told WND. "Nothing in February, either."

Earlier this month, Bartlett shocked event organizers by publicly announcing he would not participate in the forum.

In a published statement, he said he believed the group sponsoring the historic redress event, the We The People Foundation, had begun a marketing campaign that was tantamount to advising Americans not to file income taxes.

"I am quite dismayed" by the campaign, which was entitled, "Wait to File Until the Trial," Bartlett said in his letter. "The information that you are currently disseminating concerning the Feb. 27 and 28 forum is misleading. I will not be a party to advocating the non-payment of federal income taxes."

Instead, Bartlett has agreed to submit a set of questions formulated by the group to the Department of Justice and IRS, then post the answers he receives on his own congressional website – an option Schulz has repeatedly declined.

After he backed out of the event, WND discovered that Bartlett had previously received a letter, around Thanksgiving, from the Justice Department, saying neither it nor the IRS would attend, even though both agencies had pledged in writing last July to send representatives.

According to Robert Schulz, chairman of We The People, neither the congressman nor his office ever informed him of the cancellation.

Furthermore, Schulz said, the marketing campaign in question did not advise people not to file tax returns. Rather, he said, it simply asked taxpayers to wait for the conclusion of the hearings.

The forum was set up to address questions surrounding the passage of the 16th Amendment, which authorizes Congress to levy an income tax. Schulz' group contends the amendment was never properly ratified and, hence, the government has no authority to tax income.

Schulz told WorldNetDaily that as he learns more about events surrounding the cancellation, he becomes increasingly disappointed.

"We had the word, in writing, from high-level government officials" that the meeting would happen, he said, "but they've broken their word."

Last July, Schulz began a hunger strike to compel the government to send representatives to his group's tax forum to answer questions it had about the income tax. Schulz ended the strike July 20, after 20 days, when U.S. Assistant Attorney General Dan Bryant and Bartlett promised that DOJ and IRS would send representatives to the meeting.

"If the people don't have the First Amendment's fundamental right to petition the government for a redress, then essentially we don't have any rights," he said. "We just can't tolerate this behavior by the government. If we do, then this becomes a precedent for a second violation, then that for a third, and so on."

Schulz said last week the group would still hold its forum, in a Washington, D.C., hotel rather than a congressional meeting room.

Last week, sources in Washington told WorldNetDaily that Bartlett's office had initially done what it could to help but that Schulz' group had "changed the game" and had begun "making unreasonable demands."

"Roscoe's biggest mistake is that he was nice to [We The People]," one source – who requested anonymity – said. "With them it was all or nothing on this tax thing. If you agree with them, you're a hero. If you disagree, you're a goat. Period."

So far, no other lawmakers have volunteered to host the forum.