Issa issues new IRS subpoena
Updated 3:07 p.m. 11/8/2013
Washington (CNN) – House Republicans are returning the spotlight to another Obama administration controversy with the executive branch currently mired in the botched online rollout of HealthCare.gov and broken promises over Obamacare.
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, is again pressing the IRS over its scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. He issued another subpoena late Thursday to the Treasury Department, according to two spokespeople for the committee.
The subpoena contains eight requests for documents. Some are broad, seeking all documents related to how the IRS determines tax-exempt status or how Treasury was responding to congressional inquiries on the matter.
Others are more specific, asking for any documents related to a June briefing given to Treasury's general counsel or related to any of 10 specific letters with members of Congress.
The subpoena is not limited to the IRS controversy, it also seeks all documents regarding how the IRS set up its internal Affordable Care Act office to handle Obamacare.
The latest request comes after congressional Republicans have been working to demonstrate what they believe - that someone outside the IRS knew about the targeting of tea party groups. But various investigations have not been able to prove the claim.
The GOP-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee first issued a subpoena in June, roughly a month after the IRS admitted to applying extra scrutiny to some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status from 2010-2012.
Revelations later came out that the IRS also targeted progressive groups, though not to the same degree as conservative ones.
Ali Ahmad, senior communications adviser to Issa's committee, said the Treasury Department submitted 356 pages of documents by the June 27 deadline from the first subpoena, but the Oversight panel said the information was not satisfactory to the subpoena request.
In September, Issa followed up and asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in a letter to comply with the full subpoena request from June by October 2. However, because the government was shutdown beginning October 1, the Department told the committee it would not be able to complete the request–so the committee loosened their deadline requirements.
Later in October, after the government reopened, the Department provided another 800 pages of documents, according to Issa's committee.
But it still wasn't enough, spokespersons for the committee now say, and they issued the second subpoena this week that also calls for documents showing internal communications, including conversations about the Treasury's internal investigation, as well as communications about how the IRS decides to evaluate applications for tax exempt status.
A Treasury official said the department "remains committed to work with Congress" and will continue to try to provide the documents.
"Additionally, as we have said numerous times, Treasury is not involved in the details of tax administration and enforcement," the official continued, adding that the IRS is best suited to provide such material. "To that end, they are going to extraordinary lengths to cooperate with Congress."
The official added that the IRS has assigned more than 150 employees retrieving the information for congressional committees and have produced over 440,000 pages.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who has been highly critical of the way Issa has conducted the IRS probe, said Friday the committee "has obtained no evidence that anyone other than IRS employees were involved in the use of inappropriate screening criteria for progressive and conservative groups."
"Yet Chairman Issa continues to fish for links to the Treasury Department and the White House in a desperate attempt to keep this investigation going," he continued in a statement. "The fact is that Treasury and IRS have already been complying with a previous subpoena by handing over hundreds of thousands of documents.”
In the nearly six months since the scandal came to light, House Republicans have led multiple congressional hearings on the issue, with some Democrats joining in on the outrage.
Several officials have since left the IRS, including the then-acting commissioner whose resignation was demanded almost immediately by the White House, and Lois Lerner, former director of tax exempt organizations for the IRS, announced her retirement.
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