Oversight Committee Announces Next IRS Targeting Hearing
WASHINGTON—House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today announced the full Committee will hold a hearing next Thursday July 18th at 9:30 a.m. titled “The IRS’s Systematic Delay and Scrutiny of Tea Party Applications.”
The hearing will focus on the relationship between IRS officials in Cincinnati and IRS officials in Washington, D.C., and the development and execution of the process by which Tea Party applications were delayed and scrutinized.
“Washington and Cincinnati IRS officials have told Committee investigators that they understood Tea Party applications were being isolated from other cases and subjected to extra scrutiny to ensure fair, efficient, and consistent treatment,” said Chairman Issa. “While President Obama has already dismissed the head of the IRS in the wake of this scandal, this hearing will examine why decisions to elevate cases to more senior levels of the IRS led to unjust delays and unfair treatment of Tea Party applications. The evidence gathered in this investigation makes clear that had Washington IRS officials simply kept their hands off these cases and allowed employees in the Cincinnati office to process applications independently, instead of facing excessive delays, these cases would have been processed just like other advocacy cases.
Issa continued: “Witnesses from both the Washington and Cincinnati offices will be asked to explain why, even as dozens of applications for progressive groups were being approved, orders from senior levels within the IRS resulted in inappropriate and disparate treatment for Tea Party applications.”
The Committee will soon announce hearing witnesses.