Blog Posts by Chris Moody, Yahoo! News

Douglas Shulman, former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (Gary Cameron/Reuters)

Two top Internal Revenue Service officials knew that the agency was using a list to scrutinize applications for tax-exempt status that included the phrase "tea party" as early as the spring of 2012, but did not tell lawmakers until this year.

Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and outgoing Commissioner Steven Miller told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday that they knew last year that the IRS had a "Be On The Lookout" list while processing nonprofit applications and that tea party groups were on it. The extent of their knowledge at the time, however, was limited, they said.

The IRS is facing scrutiny after a Treasury Department inspector general report detailed how the agency unfairly targeted conservative groups applying for nonprofit status between 2010 and 2012. IRS officials deny that the practice was politically motivated but have admitted that mistakes were made in the agency's approach to responding to applications.

"What I knew sometime in the spring of 2012 was that

(The Washington Post)

The Republican Party is actively working to recruit more women to run for public office, but they still face "institutional barriers" to getting involved in GOP politics at the ground level, Republican State Leadership Committee President Chris Jankowski said on Monday.

As part of the RSLC's Right Women Right Now project, the organization, which specializes in recruiting and electing Republicans to local offices like state legislatures and attorneys general, provides resources to female candidates to help navigate the candidacy process and helps them overcome what he described as a Republican "old boy network" that undervalues women with public ambitions.

"Sometimes our party does not value them as much," Jankowski told reporters at a morning briefing at the RSLC headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Monday. "They are a great asset as candidates. They bring a different approach to campaigning. We obviously need more women to enter public office and get on that escalator to higher

While applying with the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status in 2009, an Iowa-based anti-abortion group was asked to provide information about its members' prayer meetings, documents sent by an IRS official to the organization reveal.

On June 22, 2009, the Coalition for Life of Iowa received a letter from the IRS office in Cincinnati, Ohio, that oversees tax exemptions requesting details about how often members pray and whether their prayers are "considered educational."

"Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood, are considered educational as defined under 501(c)(3)," reads the letter, made public by the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm that collected evidence about the IRS practices. "Organizations exempt under 501(c)(3) may present opinions with scientific or medical facts. Please explain in detail the activities at these prayer meetings. Also, please provide the percentage of time your

Outgoing Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Steven Miller. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Outgoing IRS Commissioner Steven Miller apologized Friday on behalf of the federal tax collection agency for unfairly targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. But Miller insisted the practice was "absolutely not illegal."

The IRS is under fire for placing heavier scrutiny on organizations with words like "tea party" or "patriots" in their name when they applied for nonprofit status between 2010 and 2012, according to a report unveiled this week by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

"It is absolutely not illegal," Miller said during an exchange with Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Price during a four-hour House Ways and Means Committee hearing.

"Do you believe it is illegal for employees of the IRS to create lists, to target individual groups and citizens in this country?" Price responded.

"I think the Treasury inspector general indicated it might not be, but others will be able to tell that," Miller said.

"What do you believe?" Price

John Boehner walks away from a printed version of Obamacare regulations. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In what has become an annual tradition, the Republican-led House of Representatives on Thursday voted again to fully repeal the federal health care law passed by Democrats and signed by President Barack Obama in 2010.

The House first voted for full repeal in January 2011 when Republicans took control of the chamber, and again in July 2012 after the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the law was constitutional. Thursday's vote marks the third time the House has passed full repeal, but the first since members were sworn in to the 113th Congress in January. Like the votes in 2011 and 2012, the measure will die with the House as the Democrat-majority Senate is not expected to take up the repeal bill.

Republican leaders defended the decision to hold another vote on the bill on Thursday, while Democrats chastised them for holding the same vote repeatedly.

"Some critics have suggested it's a waste of time," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters at his weekly press briefing on Thursday.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans of using the alleged scandals involving the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Justice and the State Department as an "evasion" from passing bills she said would increase job growth.

Over the past few weeks, the IRS admitted to targeting conservative groups applying for nonprofit status and the Department of Justice seized AP journalists' phone records. Earlier this week, the White House provided more details about the Obama administration's initial response to last year's attack on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Pelosi called the IRS and DOJ issues "legitimate"—she condemned the IRS' practices outright—but suggested that Republicans were trying to exploit them for political gain.

"Any issue that comes up, they will try to exploit," Pelosi said. "And some of them are legitimate issues, but they should not dominate everything. And so, what I think is that they have used talking

MediaTrackers.org

In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve nonprofit status for a new conservative watchdog group.

He submitted the paperwork to the IRS in July 2011 for a research site called Media Trackers, which calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog dedicated to promoting accountability in the media and government." Although the site has investigated Republicans like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the site's organizers are unapologetically conservative.

"One thing we don't hide is: 'Yeah, we're conservative—free-market, free-enterprise, full-spectrum conservative,'" Ryun told Mother Jones magazine last year.

Eight months passed without word from the agency about the group's application, Ryun said. In February 2012, Ryun's attorney contacted the IRS to ask if it needed more information to secure its nonprofit status as a 501(c)3

House Democrats will begin making robocalls to voters in 10 congressional districts Wednesday that target Republican lawmakers who support a new effort to repeal the 2010 federal health care law.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is paying for the calls, which according to a script obtained by Yahoo News, will warn voters that Republicans support putting "insurance companies back in charge of your health care."

“The Republican Congress is scheduled to vote tomorrow to put insurance companies back in charge of your health care and repeal vital consumer protections and benefits that you’ve earned," the voice on the call will say. “And your Congressman might be part of the problem. Tell [your congressman] to stand up for middle class families here in California—and don't help the Republican Congress give insurance companies more control over your life."

House Republican leaders are planning to vote Thursday on a stand-alone, full-scale repeal of the law, which is expected to