Republican lawmakers accused IRS officials Friday of "lying" to members of Congress about the targeting of conservative groups, as they grilled the outgoing commissioner in the first hearing on the scandal. They also got no answers as they sought the names of those responsible.
Lawmakers repeatedly confronted Steven Miller -- the acting commissioner ousted from him job earlier this week -- about his and other officials' failure to disclose the program last year despite being aware of it.
"In fact, we were repeatedly told no such targeting was happening. That isn't being misled, that's lying," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Yet Miller seemed to frustrate lawmakers' attempts to dig deeper. He claimed, a week after the scandal broke and a year after he first learned of the practice, that he still did not know who was responsible.
"I don't have that name," he testified, after Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., asked who was behind the program. Reichert accused Miller of being "uncooperative during this hearing."
Miller also claimed -- over and over -- he was being honest with Congress during a hearing last year.
"You did not share the information you knew," Reichert charged.
"I answered all questions truthfully," Miller replied.
This claim was met with deep skepticism Friday. Miller acknowledged he learned of the practice during a May 3, 2012, briefing. Yet when he was asked about it at a July 25 hearing that year, he said only that some applications fell into a particular category - and that those organizations were grouped for "consistency" and "quality."
A letter he wrote to a Republican lawmaker the month before also gave a general description of the process without acknowledging that some groups were being singled out based on words like "Tea Party" and "Patriot."
"How can we not conclude that you misled this committee?" Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., former GOP vice presidential nominee, asked Miller.
Miller said he "did not mislead the committee" and stands by his answer.
Asked whether his answer was "incomplete," he said again he answered "truthfully."
Miller objected to the term "targeting," and claimed political motivations were not at play in the program, which began in 2010. But he apologized for the program and said "foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient."
"As acting commissioner, I want to apologize on the behalf of the Internal Revenue Service for the mistakes that we made and the poor service provided," Miller said. "The affected organizations and the American public deserve better."
The hearing is the first to examine the scandal, and will likely kick off a string of subsequent hearings and investigations. Republicans made clear that the two retirements or resignations to date would not satisfy their concerns. Democrats were also critical of the agency, but voiced concern that it would be used by Republicans to score "political points."
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, ripped the tax-collecting agency over the practice at the start of the hearing. "Now we know the truth -- or at least some of it," he said. "We also know that these revelations are just the tip of the iceberg. It would be a mistake to treat this as just one scandal."
He questioned how high the scandal went, and also suggested there was other targeting of conservatives that has not yet been acknowledged by the agency. He called it part of a "culture of cover-ups."
"This systemic abuse cannot be fixed with just one resignation, or two," he said. He said the problem is not just personnel, but the size and scope of the IRS.
The inspector general who released a scathing report on the agency also testified Friday. J. Russell George -- the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration -- said his findings raised "troubling questions" about the agency, while claiming some of the wrongdoing was apparently done with no-to-little supervision.
But he said all three allegations against the agency turned out to be true -- that it was using "inappropriate criteria" to screen conservative groups, it was delaying applications and it was asking unnecessary questions.
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the committee, said the agency's management "completely failed the American people." At the same time, he urged Republicans not to use the hearing to "score political points."
Republicans, though, expressed more concern after they learned Thursday that the IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when the targeting took place -- Sarah Hall Ingram -- has since moved over to the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare.
"Stunning. Just stunning," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after learning of the move.
Miller said Friday he was the one who promoted her and called her a "superb civil servant."
The acknowledgement comes after the administration announced that Ingram's successor Joseph Grant -- who had only been on the job a few days -- would be retiring.
President Obama, meanwhile, maintained Thursday that he didn't know about the investigation into the IRS program until it was made public. Obama also appointed a new acting commissioner -- White House budget officer Daniel Werfel -- after the prior IRS chief announced his resignation.
The revelations at the Friday hearing could add more headaches for the Obama administration, as it tries to juggle its response to several scandals at once.
It's unclear whether more officials will resign at the IRS in the days to come. This week's clean-up at the agency is part of the Obama administration's mad dash to save face and regain footing after being hammered by a series of scandals this week, including new questions over the Benghazi terror attack and the Justice Department's seizing of journalists' phone records.
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