Vern Buchanan: Examine IRS ‘culture’

May 17, 2013

POLITICO

A member of the congressional committee with the first post-scandal crack at the IRS said Friday he wants to examine how to change the agency’s culture.

“I’m concerned about the culture of the IRS,” Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “As someone that’s been in business for 30 years, I know that there’s a belief and a value system, that culture can be good or it can be bad. But obviously we’ve a lot of problems within the IRS, a lot of questions that need to get addressed and answered, so that would be my biggest issue.”

Buchanan is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is holding a hearing Friday at which former acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller is expected to testify. The White House forced Miller out of his job earlier this week.

The Floridian also said he was worried the scandal could move beyond the small group of employees who singled out conservative groups’ applications for non-profit status to inappropriate scrutiny.

“I hope that it’s not beyond this,” he said. “There’s a lot of people we’re hearing from now that have concerns, individuals that might have been donors, companies, other organizations, so this could be a much broader than just, you know, the people we’re talking about being targeted.”