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| President Barack Obama speaks on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday May 15, 2013. Obama announced the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, the top official at the IRS. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- President Barack Obama picked a senior White House budget
official to become the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service on
Thursday, the same day another top official announced plans to leave the
agency amid the controversy over agents targeting tea party groups.
Obama
named longtime civil servant Daniel Werfel as the acting IRS
commissioner. Werfel, 42, currently serves as controller of the Office
of Management and Budget, making him a key player in implementing recent
automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.
"Throughout
his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations,
Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism,
integrity and skill," Obama said in a statement. "The American people
deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and
as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence
in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary
to lead the agency at this important time."
Werfel
replaces Steven Miller as acting IRS commissioner. Miller was forced to
resign Wednesday amid the growing scandal, though he is still scheduled
to testify Friday at a congressional hearing.
Also
Thursday, Joseph Grant, one of Miller's top deputies, announced plans
to retire June 3, according to an internal IRS memo. Grant is
commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities
division, which includes the agents that targeted tea party groups for
additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Grant
joined the IRS in 2005. Before that he was a top official at the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. It was not immediately clear
whether Grant's retirement was related to the controversy over tea party
targeting by the IRS.
Werfel agreed to head
the IRS through the end of September, the White House said. Presumably,
Obama will nominate a new commissioner by then.
IRS
commissioners serve five-year terms and must be confirmed by the
Senate. Werfel won't need Senate approval because he is a temporary
appointment. The Senate, however, confirmed Werfel for his current
position without opposition in 2009.
Werfel
has had several jobs at the Office of Management and Budget and worked
there during President George W. Bush's administration. He has also been
a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
"He
is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant who has ably
served presidents of both parties," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in
a statement. "Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for - and
excelling at - tough management assignments."
Former
Bush chief of staff Joshua Bolten said Werfel was highly regarded by
the Bush White House and that departing Bush budget officials
recommended Werfel for controller to the incoming Obama camp after the
2008 election.
"He was consummately
professional, well organized and effective," said Bolten, who also
served as Bush's budget director from 2003 to 2006.
Werfel
takes over an agency in crisis and under investigation. The IRS
apologized last week for improperly targeting conservative political
groups for additional, sometimes burdensome scrutiny when they applied
for tax-exempt status. The practice went on more than 18 months,
diminishing the ability of these groups to raise money during election
cycles in 2010 and 2012, said an inspector general's report released
this week.
The report did not indicate that
Washington initiated the targeting of conservative groups. But it did
blame ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen.
On
Thursday, Obama dismissed the idea of a special prosecutor, saying
probes by Congress and the Justice Department should be able to figure
out who was responsible.
"Between those
investigations I think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what
happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able
to implement steps to fix it," Obama said at a Rose Garden press
conference.
Obama promised to work with
Congress in its investigations, and he reiterated that he did not know
that conservative groups were targeted until it became public last
Friday.
"I promise you this, that the minute I
found out about it, then my main focus was making sure that we get the
thing fixed," Obama said.
Don't look for the controversy to subside.
Three congressional committees are investigating, and the FBI has launched a criminal probe.
On
Friday, Miller is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means
Committee. Also testifying is J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector
general for tax administration.
Ways and Means
Committee members are expected to grill Miller over why he failed to
tell lawmakers that conservative groups were targeted, even after the
agency said he was briefed in May 2012.
At
least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of
Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt
status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On
July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means
oversight subcommittee but again was not forthcoming on the issue -
despite being asked about it.
"The IRS has
demonstrated a culture of cover up and has failed time and time again to
be completely open and honest with the American people," said Rep. Dave
Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "The committee
and the American people deserve honest answers from Mr. Miller at our
hearing this Friday."
The groups were applying
for tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations. Unlike other
charitable groups, social welfare organizations can engage on politics
but it is not supposed to be their primary mission.
It is up to the IRS to make the determination.
The
inspector general's report said that if agents saw the words "Tea
Party" or "Patriots" in an application, they automatically set it aside
for additional scrutiny. The agents did not flag similar progressive or
liberal labels, though some liberal groups did receive additional
scrutiny because their applications were singled out for other reasons,
the report said.
Miller, a 25-year career
civil servant at the IRS, took over the agency in November, when the
five-year term of Commissioner Douglas Shulman ended. Shulman was
appointed by President George W. Bush.
At the time when tea party groups were targeted, Miller was a deputy commissioner and Grant's supervisor.
Miller
was to return to his job as a deputy commissioner when he was finished
being the acting head of the agency. But he announced his resignation
from that position Wednesday.
The Senate
Finance Committee said it will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday. The
House Oversight Committee is to hold a hearing Wednesday.
On
Thursday, Senate Republicans called for yet another investigation into
whether agents in the same Cincinnati office that targeted conservative
groups released confidential taxpayer information from some of those
groups.
The Journalism website ProPublica
reported this week that the IRS had released nine pending confidential
applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.
The
IRS said in a statement that the inspector general already had
investigated the matter, and "found these instances to be inadvertent
and unintentional disclosures by the employees involved."
