Pa. Representative Grills Former IRS Commissioner
PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) -- All eyes were on the Ways and Means Committee when they took up the IRS issue.
Congressman Jim Gerlach who represents the 6th District of Pennsylvania is a member of the committee. He talked to KDKA's Bill Rehkopf about the hearing held in Washington DC.
Rep. Gerlach says that everyone on the committee is outraged with the IRS and former acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who talked to the Ways and Means Committee apologizing for, "the mistakes that we made and the poor service we provided."
Miller told the committee that he did not mislead the American people. When asked if he agrees with the statement that the special attention that was paid to the Tea Party applications because there were a lot of applications for tax exemptions and it just got buried, Rep. Gerlach says he doesn't buy it.
"They decided to target certain conservative groups and delayed their application process with a lot of questions that are really chilling," he added.
Rep. Gerlach added that the questions the IRS had were personal involving political and religious beliefs. Former commissioner Miller told the committee that he didn't think what the IRS did was necessarily illegal.
Rep. Gerlach said that, "When he made that statement there was an audible gasp among us members on the committee because the law is very clear."
Rep. Gerlach asked Miller a question about the knowledge that the White House and Treasury Department knew or did not now about the IRS targeting certain groups.
He was not satisfied with his answers and said, "I think we have some probing and additional work to do there. The current communications between him and others in the IRS and other people in the Treasury Department about confidential information sharing that again is illegal so we have a lot more work to do here."
With the IRS situation and AP records being confiscated by the Department of Justice, Rep. Gerlach asks, "Who the heck is in charge in the executive branch of our government and why at the top level do they not know what the heck is going on with these agencies."
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