IRS replaces official: How many heads will roll?

IRS replaces the official who oversaw the agents that targeted tea party groups, placing her on paid leave after she refused to resign. Her replacement is a 27-year IRS veteran.

By Stephen Ohlemacher,?Associated Press / May 23, 2013

Lois Lerner, the official who refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing yesterday, has been replaced as director of the IRS division overseeing agents who targeted tea party groups. Danny Werfel, the IRS's new acting commissioner, emailed IRS employees today that he has selected a new acting head of the division.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

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Moving quickly to stem a raging controversy, the new acting head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) started cleaning house Thursday by?replacing?the supervisor who oversaw agents involved in targeting tea party groups.

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A day after she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, Lois Lerner was placed on administrative leave, according to congressional sources.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said Lerner was asked to resign but refused, so she was placed on leave. An?IRS?spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on Lerner's status because it was a private personnel matter.

Danny Werfel, the agency's new acting commissioner, told?IRS?employees in an email that he had selected a new acting head of the division, staying within the?IRS?to find new leadership.

Ken Corbin, a 27-year?IRS?veteran, will be the new acting director of the agency's exempt organizations division. Corbin currently is a deputy director in the wage and investment division, where he oversees 17,000 workers responsible for processing 172 million individual and business tax returns, Werfel said.

Werfel's email Thursday made no mention of Lerner. But congressional aides who were briefed on the matter confirmed that Lerner was placed on paid administrative leave. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because a personnel matter was involved.

"From all accounts so far, the?IRS?acting commissioner was on solid ground to ask for her resignation," Grassley said in a statement. "The?IRS?owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly. The agency needs to move on to fix the conditions that led to the targeting debacle. She shouldn't be in limbo indefinitely on the taxpayers' dime."

Lerner's lawyer, William W. Taylor III, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lerner is the?IRS?official?who first publicly disclosed on May 10 that?IRS?agents had been targeting tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. At the time she apologized on behalf of the?IRS, but it wasn't enough to stop a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Congress.

If Lerner, a career civil servant, is dismissed she would become the third?IRS?official?to lose their job in the scandal. Last week, President Barack Obama forced acting?IRS?Commissioner Steven Miller to resign,replacing?him with Werfel, a former White House budget?official?who started at the?IRS?on Wednesday.

Also last week, Joseph Grant, one of Miller's top deputies, announced plans to retire June 3, according to an internal?IRS?memo. Grant had just been named commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, which includes the agents that targeted tea party groups. Grant had been the acting head of the division since 2010.

Lerner provided one of the most electric moments since the controversy erupted when she unwaveringly ? but briefly ? defended herself before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday.

"I have not done anything wrong," she told the committee, reading from a written statement. "I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any?IRS?rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/SJMo9rJ548U/IRS-replaces-official-How-many-heads-will-roll

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