what happened here, someone saw some tea party cases come through, acknowledging that they would be engaged in politics. this is the time frame in 2010 when citizens united was out. there was a lot of discussion in the system about the use of c-4s. they decided let s group these cases, centralize these cases, the concept of centralization not troublesome, not targeting these people in that sense. what we re doing, making sure we bring them in and have people let me ask you this. you said incorrect. but not untruthful. was he not informed of this process? to my knowledge, i don t believe he knew at the time. because in march, you sent technical adviser to cincinnati, there were press reports. letters from chairman camp and myself dating back to 2011, so
thank you. i would like to welcome, j. russell george has been the treasury inspector general for tax administration since 2002, and mr. steven miller, who is currently the acting commissioner for the irs. thank you both for being with us today. you will each have five minutes to present your testimony with your full written testimony submitted for the record. mr. george, we ll begin with you. you are recognized for five minutes. chairman camp, ranking member levin, members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to discuss our report concerning oversight by the internal revenue service of groups that applied for tax-exempt status. as you are aware the organization that i lead, the treasury inspector general for tax administration, protects the integrity of the federal tax system. our audit was initiated based on concerns expressed by members of the congress because of taxpayer allegations that they were subject to unfair treatment by the irs. our report issued earl
martha: all right. so that is his argument but what we re hearing from the other side, from chairman camp, who launched into a line of questioning that had to do with the national organization for marriage, wanting to know if donor lists for that group were shared. now just to give everybody some context on this, the suggestion is that during the 2012 electoral cycle that mitt romney was discovered to have given, $10,000 donation to this group. so camp is digging deeper here. he is wondering if donor lists were provided for purposes that may have had something to do with the campaign. so there s a lot of issues here that may be linked in a larger picture and also as we just watched the representative from texas digging in here as well, wanting to know who authorized this, who was behind the criteria that was developed. who said, basically, to workers, what you need to do is target groups that have
applications? yes. and finally, did the irs ask inappropriate and unnecessary questions of applicants? again, yes. these findings have raised troubling questions about whether the irs has effective management oversight and control at least in the exempt organizations function so that the public can be reassured that the irs s impartial and in administering the nation s tax laws fairly. chairman camp, ranking member, levin, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to present my views and i look forward to your questions. thank you, mr. george. mr. miller, you are now recognized for five minutes. thank you, mr. chairman. excuse me. thanks for the opportunity to be here today. unfortunately given time considerations we received the notice of hearing within the last two days, the irs was unable to prepare written testimony. i would note that i have a very brief statement before i take your questions.
that someone saw some tea party faces come through. they were acknowledging they were going to be engaged in politics. this was the time frame in 2010 when citizens united was out. there was a lot of discussion in the system about the use of c 4s. people in cincinnati decided let s start grouping these cases. let s centralize these cases. the way they centralized it, troublesome. the concept not. we re not targeting these people in that sense. what we are doing is making sure that we bring them in and have people let me ask you this. you said incorrect but not untruthful. yeah. was he not informed of the process? to my knowledge, i don t believe he knew at the time. because in march, you sent a technical adviser to cincinnati. there were press reports, letters from chairman camp and myself dating back to 2011. and so, clearly.