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Toledo
Blade
Ohio
groups long ago sounded alarm
on IRS
By Tom Troy and Vanessa McCray
Conservative
Ohio groups more than
a year ago raised the alarm that the Internal Revenue Service was
holding up
their applications for tax-exempt status, leading Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim
Jordan
(R., Urbana) to request the audit that led to the IRS's admission that
it
targeted Tea Party-related groups for close scrutiny.
The
scandal on Wednesday broadened
enough to prompt President Obama's Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to
request the
resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller.
Mr.
Jordan, who chairs a Tea
Party-leaning conservative caucus in the House of Representatives, sent
a
letter on March 27, 2012, to the IRS, seeking a response to complaints
from
Ohio groups. His committee followed that up in June, 2012, with a
request for
an IRS audit. He has continued to focus House GOP heat on the IRS.
“We
still do not know why the
targeting began, how extensive it was, who initiated it and who knew
about it.
The IRS must be held accountable to the American people, which requires
a full
investigation of the circumstances surrounding the facts established in
this
audit,” Mr. Jordan said Wednesday.
He
recalled that Lois Lerner, the
IRS director of exempt organizations, in 2012 "assured us there was
nothing to be suspicious of."
"We
continued to pursue this
topic through Committee correspondence and are pleased that our
requested
report is completed and look forward to hearing from Ms. Lerner in
front of the
Oversight Committee next week," Mr. Jordan said.
Mr.
Jordan chairs a subcommittee of
the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is
chaired by
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R., California). His 4th Congressional District
stretches from Mercer County to Lorain County, and includes Sandusky
and Seneca
counties and part of Erie County.
Also
responding to conservative
groups’ complaints was U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) who was the
lead author
of the first Congressional action, a letter on March, 12, 2012,
complaining to
the IRS that excessive demands were being made on a lot of conservative
groups
in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas.
Read
the rest of the article at the
Toledo Blade
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