Treasury Secretary Jack Lew attempted to distance his department from the Internal Revenue Service’s controversial actions at a Senate hearing on Tuesday morning, despite acknowledging that the Treasury oversees the IRS.
Lew said he did not know any details of the inspector general’s investigation into inappropriate targeting of conservative nonprofit groups before the final report was released, although he confessed that the inspector general alerted him to it on March 15.
"The inspector flagged a number of items without going into great detail," Lew said about his meeting with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) on March 15.
By contending that the IRS’ actions were contained within the agency, Lew continued the administration’s strategy of distancing the embattled departments from the scandals that engulfed the administration last week.
Attorney General Eric Holder likewise pleaded ignorance about the various scandals convulsing the administration last week during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. Holder used the phrase "I don’t know" or some variant at least 57 times in the hearing, according to reports.
Much of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing Tuesday morning, initially intended to discuss the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s annual report, was devoted to the IRS scandal.
Committee ranking member Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) spent the entirety of his first segment of allotted time on the IRS scandal, turning to the hearing’s stated purpose in the second round of questions.
Crapo and other senators pressed Lew on who knew what about the scandal and when. Lew argued that the Treasury Department should not interfere with the IRS’ internal decisions.
"I will not cross that line into the administration of the tax system," Lew said. He emphasized that his priority is setting up a management system that will prevent this kind of scandal from happening again.
Sen. Dean Heller (R., Nev.) expressed concern that Lew did not inquire further into the investigation when he first heard about it. Lew told the committee that he simply gave the inspector general his full support in investigating the matter.
"I’m just surprised that you had no additional questions," Heller said, noting that in his experience it is not uncommon for corporate and government heads to inquire into the results of investigations, even before they are final.
Lew said it would be inappropriate for the department secretary to become involved in an inspector general’s investigation.
Lew repeatedly expressed his and President Barack Obama’s disapproval of the IRS’ actions, although he also said repeatedly that the inspector general’s report found no evidence of political motivation.
Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) called the sincerity of the president and secretary’s outrage "kind of laughable."
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were "demonizing" and "villainizing" the same groups that the IRS was targeting, Corker said. He said their comments created a culture that encouraged the IRS’s discriminatory actions.
"People should not be surprised that bureaucrats at lower levels took it upon themselves to do what they did," Corker said.