WASHINGTON — The ousted head of the Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for the agency's "foolish mistakes" in singling out conservative groups for intrusive and time-consuming scrutiny, but said that the effort was not driven by partisan motives.
Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, whose tenure will end Wednesday after he resigned under pressure this week, said the agency staff's attempts to identify groups with political aims was not "targeting," as it was termed in an inspector general's audit. He called that a pejorative characterization and said the problem was essentially a bureaucratic failing.
"I do not believe that partisanship motivated the people who engaged in the practices described," he told the House Ways and Means Committee.
That did not satisfy Republican members of the panel.
"On the one hand, you're arguing today that the IRS is not corrupt, but the subtext of that is you're saying, 'Look, we're just incompetent,'" Rep. Peter Roskam of Illinois shot back.
Alternately penitent and defensive in the face of nearly four hours of sometimes rough questioning, Miller strenuously denied that he had misled Congress last year when lawmakers repeatedly pressed him about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS.
"I answered the questions as they were asked," Miller said.
But he admitted that the IRS decided to acknowledge the problems publicly for the first time at an American Bar Assn. meeting last week by planting a question with a lawyer in the audience. That unusual strategy infuriated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who said the agency's first stop should have been Congress.
The hearing was the first of three called by congressional panels to grill top officials about how the agency bungled the handling of applications from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations. The inspector general's audit released Tuesday concluded that the agency inappropriately flagged for review dozens of organizations that used terms such as "tea party" or phrases such as "educating on the Constitution" in their applications in its efforts to determine their level of political engagement. Social welfare groups are permitted to do a limited amount of election activity, but it cannot be their primary purpose.
Nearly 300 organizations were caught up in that process, many bombarded with extensive questionnaires about their activities. Their applications languished, some for more than three years.
"I can say, generally, we provided horrible customer service here," Miller admitted.
The revelations about the screening process triggered a political storm. On Wednesday, President Obama, seeking to quell the controversy, forced Miller to resign, calling the misconduct "inexcusable."
The White House has said it first learned that the inspector general's audit was underway several weeks ago, when the Treasury Department alerted the White House counsel's office that a report would be released.
On Friday, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told the committee that he informed top Treasury officials nearly a year ago that he was conducting an investigation.
George told Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew of the audit on March 15, but Lew said he did not know the details until last week. "From the moment I learned about it, I was outraged," Lew told Bloomberg TV.
More details may yet emerge. George told the panel that his office was still reviewing how the IRS handled applications for tax-exempt status.
Even as administration officials sought to distance themselves from the controversy, Republican lawmakers tried to use Friday's hearing to link the scandal to the president.
"Under this administration, the IRS has abused its power to tax, and it has destroyed what little faith and hope the American people had in getting a fair shake in Washington," said Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the committee chairman.
His GOP colleagues piled on.
"Is this still America?" asked Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas. "Is this government so drunk on power that it would turn its full force, its full might to harass and intimidate and threaten an average American who only wants her voice and their voices heard?"
Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, whose tenure will end Wednesday after he resigned under pressure this week, said the agency staff's attempts to identify groups with political aims was not "targeting," as it was termed in an inspector general's audit. He called that a pejorative characterization and said the problem was essentially a bureaucratic failing.
"I do not believe that partisanship motivated the people who engaged in the practices described," he told the House Ways and Means Committee.
That did not satisfy Republican members of the panel.
"On the one hand, you're arguing today that the IRS is not corrupt, but the subtext of that is you're saying, 'Look, we're just incompetent,'" Rep. Peter Roskam of Illinois shot back.
Alternately penitent and defensive in the face of nearly four hours of sometimes rough questioning, Miller strenuously denied that he had misled Congress last year when lawmakers repeatedly pressed him about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS.
"I answered the questions as they were asked," Miller said.
But he admitted that the IRS decided to acknowledge the problems publicly for the first time at an American Bar Assn. meeting last week by planting a question with a lawyer in the audience. That unusual strategy infuriated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who said the agency's first stop should have been Congress.
The hearing was the first of three called by congressional panels to grill top officials about how the agency bungled the handling of applications from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations. The inspector general's audit released Tuesday concluded that the agency inappropriately flagged for review dozens of organizations that used terms such as "tea party" or phrases such as "educating on the Constitution" in their applications in its efforts to determine their level of political engagement. Social welfare groups are permitted to do a limited amount of election activity, but it cannot be their primary purpose.
Nearly 300 organizations were caught up in that process, many bombarded with extensive questionnaires about their activities. Their applications languished, some for more than three years.
"I can say, generally, we provided horrible customer service here," Miller admitted.
The revelations about the screening process triggered a political storm. On Wednesday, President Obama, seeking to quell the controversy, forced Miller to resign, calling the misconduct "inexcusable."
The White House has said it first learned that the inspector general's audit was underway several weeks ago, when the Treasury Department alerted the White House counsel's office that a report would be released.
On Friday, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told the committee that he informed top Treasury officials nearly a year ago that he was conducting an investigation.
George told Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew of the audit on March 15, but Lew said he did not know the details until last week. "From the moment I learned about it, I was outraged," Lew told Bloomberg TV.
More details may yet emerge. George told the panel that his office was still reviewing how the IRS handled applications for tax-exempt status.
Even as administration officials sought to distance themselves from the controversy, Republican lawmakers tried to use Friday's hearing to link the scandal to the president.
"Under this administration, the IRS has abused its power to tax, and it has destroyed what little faith and hope the American people had in getting a fair shake in Washington," said Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the committee chairman.
His GOP colleagues piled on.
"Is this still America?" asked Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas. "Is this government so drunk on power that it would turn its full force, its full might to harass and intimidate and threaten an average American who only wants her voice and their voices heard?"