Oversight panel to vote on resolution to censure IRS chief

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is set to vote Wednesday on a resolution to censure Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen.

The vote is part of a larger effort by House Republicans against Koskinen. Many GOP lawmakers have accused him of engaging in misconduct while Congress was investigating findings that the IRS subjected conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status to extra scrutiny. 

{mosads}The House Judiciary Committee is also weighing whether Koskinen should be impeached and is holding its second hearing on the matter next week.

The censure resolution, which was introduced last month by Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), calls for Koskinen to resign or for President Obama to remove him from office. It also calls for the forfeiture of Koskinen’s federal pension and other benefits.

Chaffetz also introduced a resolution last fall to impeach Koskinen, and he has called censure a potential “first step” toward impeachment.

The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, criticized Chaffetz for scheduling the vote before the Judiciary Committee finishes its review of the allegations against Koskinen.

“We have no idea why Chairman Chaffetz is rushing forward with his own vote, but this process is totally backwards,” Cummings said in a statement. “The Republican Inspector General found absolutely no evidence that anyone at the IRS targeted any conservative groups for political reasons, and no evidence that Commissioner Koskinen obstructed the investigation. Yet Republicans seem to have selective amnesia in their political crusade against the IRS.”