-Caveat Lector-
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
Archer's IRS Investigation Going Nowhere, Critics Say
By Damon Chappie
When leading conservative nonprofit groups charged in 1997 that the Internal
Revenue Service was unfairly targeting them with audits, the leaders of the
Congressional tax-writing panels promised a thorough investigation to find
out if the IRS was being used to attack enemies of the Clinton administration.
For the first time since Watergate, the Joint Committee on Taxation was
directed to probe political abuses by the IRS and the decision was cheered by
conservative nonprofits and covered by newspapers across the country.
But more than two years after it was supposed to be completed, the
investigation remains unfinished and it may never be done, say people
familiar with the work.
And those same conservatives who cheered the beginning of the probe are
wondering why it is still lingering.
Joseph Farah, executive director of the Western Journalism Center -- the
group that financed newspaper investigations of White House counsel Vince
Foster's death -- blasted House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas)
and the JCT for failing to finish the investigation.
It was Farah's article on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal in
October 1996 that first alerted conservatives to the trend of IRS audits
against groups that opposed the Clinton administration.
"We've checked with Archer's office and basically we've gotten a lot of
double talk. ... There is no investigation, it's ongoing, you get every
answer you can imagine," said Farah. "The main point is that no report was
ever issued. From what I understand from other members of the House is that
Archer is just looking to get out" and he's going to "leave the job undone."
Farah said he was never asked to testify before the committee and he finally
got fed up and traveled to Washington at his own expense to find out what was
happening. "I was wholly unimpressed with the level of enthusiasm and
understanding of what is happening. ... It wasn't a real investigation.
That's the only explanation there could be for this."
Archer initiated the study after hearing reports from groups such as the
Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association, Americans for Tax
Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste and the Western Journalism Center
that the IRS was auditing their books to see whether rules prohibiting
political activity by tax-exempt groups had been broken. The IRS also began
auditing a number of nonprofit groups associated with then-House Speaker Newt
Gingrich (R-Ga.) in the wake of the 1996-97 ethics case against him.
IRS officials vehemently denied abusing the audit process for political
reasons and said they welcomed the JCT study because they believed it would
clear them.
Archer, who chaired the joint committee, released a letter in March 1997
co-signed by Senate Finance Chairman William Roth (R-Del.) and the panel's
top Democrats, Rep. Charlie Rangel (N.Y.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(N.Y.), authorizing the investigation. While saying they were troubled by the
charges of political abuse against tax-exempt groups, the signatories wrote
that the allegations "should be carefully reviewed as expeditiously as
possible."
"This is a full congressional investigation into all matters," Archer's
spokesman at the time told The Washington Times.
When a Sept. 15, 1997, deadline for releasing the report was missed, aides
said it would come out in the summer of 1998. The deadline was pushed back
again until December 1998, but that was missed, too. A key staff aide who was
given the task of conducting the investigation kept delaying her departure
date from the committee but finally left the staff in February of this year
with the report unfinished.
Trent Duffy, an Archer spokesman, acknowledged that "the report is late. The
last I heard they were still working on it."
He said he could not explain the delay.
Carolyn Ward, the JCT staff aide working on the issue, told a meeting of tax
lawyers last month that the investigation was going very slowly, according to
a participant at the meeting.
Ward told Roll Call this week that "I really haven't done anything on it."
She said that her predecessor, who left the staff earlier this year, had done
the bulk of the work.
Asked about the status of the report now, Ward said that "I'm actually not
permitted to answer questions on it as you might imagine." She referred calls
to JCT Staff Director Lindy Paull and Deputy Staff Director Mary Schmitt.
Phone messages left for both of them were not returned.
But even though the furor over the political activity of tax-exempt groups
has subsided since the 1996 elections, particularly since Gingrich left
office, the groups and the tax lawyers who advise them argued that the
investigation should be completed and released.
John VonKannon, vice president of the Heritage Foundation, said, "I don't
know what is going on with the JCT study. We have not heard much about that
either."
He said it is something that the Heritage Foundation would like to see come
out even though he has no evidence that politics played a role in the group's
recent IRS audit.
William Lehrfeld, a tax attorney who has represented a number of conservative
groups, including the Heritage Foundation, said that he was deposed by JCT
staff in late 1997 and that he is awaiting the findings of the investigation.
"The thing was due September 15, 1997. And here it is October of 1999. The
public has a beef. Reporters have a beef. The organizations under study have
a beef. And all we're getting is stale ketchup," Lehrfeld said.
Gail Harmon, a tax attorney who advises liberal tax-exempt groups, said, "My
guess is that they are not finding what the conservatives wanted and that's
why it's not coming out."
Frances Hill, a University of Pennsylvania tax law expert on the political
activities of charities, argued that the report was "not doable from the very
start." She said there is no baseline for determining whether liberal or
conservative groups have been singled out for audits.
"Sometimes you work and work and work because you are required to. And you
may have something but the something that you have is perhaps something that
you don't want to put out," Hill said.
She said it would be far more valuable for the IRS to simply put out
long-awaited guidelines that will help tax-exempt groups avoid running into
trouble with political activity.
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107,
any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use
without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational
purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
