ON THE CASE

Congress: Were We Duped by the IRS?

Lawmakers focus on how the IRS hid its conservative screening program.

Lawmakers are determined to get to the bottom of how, exactly, the IRS ended up applying extra scrutiny to conservative groups requesting tax-exempt status. But first they want to know why they were kept in the dark about this practice for so long—despite attempts to intervene. Over the past few years, Congress had actually made multiple inquiries to the IRS, with little success, in response to complaints from conservative groups that they’d experienced long delays and were asked to answer unusually detailed questions as they attempted to declare tax exemption. Recently ousted IRS chief Steven Miller will be questioned during the House Ways and Means Committee’s first hearing on the matter, set to take place Friday.