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Posted by
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on Fri May 10 13:53:11 2013
fiogf49gjkf0d Politico
IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groupsBy Byron Tau, Lauren French and Tarini Parti | 5/10/13 10:45 AM EDT | Updated: 5/10/13 1:44 PM EDTThe Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday to conservative political groups for giving their tax documents extra scrutiny — validating the worst fears of Republican activists who have long accused the Obama administration of politicizing the process.
Lois Lerner, who is responsible for overseeing tax-exempt groups, said at a conference the agency singled out groups who used words like “tea party” or “patriot” in their tax documents, the AP reported.
“Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale,” the IRS added in a statement Friday afternoon.
The announcement is the latest black eye for an agency that has been criticized by members of Congress from both parties, reform groups and conservative activists for its handling of politically active tax-exempt nonprofits.
House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany told Politico he will launch an “aggressive” investigation.
“We’re not going to let this rest,” the Louisiana Republican said. “We’re going to pursue this vigorously.”
Outside groups on both sides have increasingly chosen to organize as nonprofits — regulated and reviewed by the IRS instead of the Federal Election Commission. Their nonprofit status exempts those groups from paying federal taxes — and unlike super PACs, allows them to hide their donors.
Major outside groups like the Karl Rove-affiliated Crossroads GPS, Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity and the pro-Barack Obama group Priorities USA are organized as 501(c)(4) nonprofits.
The IRS issued a statement Friday afternoon adding to Lerner’s apology, saying “it should have done a better job” dealing with the dramatic influx in applications for 501(c)(4) status. It also said that the decisions on how to handle the applications were made by “local, career employees in Cincinnati.”
“It is important to recognize that all centralized applications received the same, even-handed treatment, and the majority of cases centralized were not based on a specific name,” the agency added. “In addition, new procedures also were implemented last year to ensure that these mistakes won’t be made in the future.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said the IRS’s apology wasn’t nearly enough. “Make no mistake, an apology won’t put this issue to rest,” he said. “Now more than ever we need to send a clear message to the Obama administration that the First Amendment is non-negotiable, and that apologies after an election year are not an sufficient response to what we now know took place at the IRS.
“This kind of political thuggery has absolutely no place in our politics,” he added.
Activists expressed fury Friday that an arm of the federal government would single out groups for investigation or review based solely on ideology or party preference.
“It’s a bloody outrage. It’s a disgrace. It’s a reminder of the Nixon days when he had an enemies list. They’ve got to do more than apologize. It’s an embarrassment,” Niger Innis, chief strategist for TheTeaParty.Net, told Politico.
“Heads should roll, but when the president publicly lambasts Republican donors, petty functionaries feel impunity to harass those who would commit themselves to better the community in ways the leftist politicos at the IRS just don’t like,” said Dan Backer, a campaign finance lawyer who represents several tea party groups.
The conservative group Let Freedom Ring said it plans to file a Freedom of Information Request on the issue as soon as next week. “Blaming low-level workers is not sufficient in this case because it appears to be a broader pattern with this administration,” said the group’s president, Colin Hanna.
Complaint that the IRS has politicized its tax review process have been circulating for years.
Boustany said his staff has already sent questions to the IRS seeking details about why the announcement came today and who approved the actions.
He questioned the agency’s announcement that its actions weren’t politically motivated.
“It clearly, in my mind, [looks like it] was prompted by political motivations,” Boustany said.
Boustany added that he is concerned that IRS officials told the Ways and Means committee last year it was not applying extra scrutiny to conservative groups. “Here we are at this point in time where there is an admission that this type of targeting was in fact going on. That is just unacceptable,” he said.
On the other side, campaign finance reformers and Democrats say the IRS is not doing enough to regulate and curb the influence of anonymous money in politics.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have loudly complained that the agency has shirked its oversight role. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are among those who have routinely complained the IRS doesn’t provide basic information about its rules or evaluation standards for political nonprofits.
Levin complained last year that getting information from the agency was “like pulling teeth” — and has sent letters to the agency repeatedly asking for information about the IRS’ plans to regulate the surge in nonprofit political spending.
Hatch, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said Friday the IRS must adopt “ironclad guarantees” that the agency would no longer “harass” conservative non-profit groups. The agency’s apology “frankly isn’t enough,” he added.
During last year’s campaign, President Barack Obama and other Democrats complained about the influence of shadowy, anonymous money in politics — a development that they say the IRS had allowed to happen.
Many in the reform community now fear that any backlash against the IRS will complicate their efforts to get the agency to crack down on nonprofit groups that they say are abusing their tax exempt status and inappropriate injecting millions of anonymous dollars into elections.
“There are legitimate questions to be asked about political groups hiding behind a 501(c)(4) status,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO, Public Campaign. “It’s unfortunate a few bad apples at the IRS will make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias.”
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