Blog Posts by Chris Moody, Yahoo! News

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official in charge of approving applications for tax-exempt status, denied wrongdoing in response to accusations that the IRS targeted conservative organizations seeking nonprofit status for heavier scrutiny between 2010 and 2012.

"I have not done anything wrong," Lerner told the House Oversight Committee during a hearing about the IRS' practices Wednesday. "I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee."

Lerner's opening statement before the committee was the only information she would provide at the hearing. As advised by her attorney, Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself by testifying and declined to respond to questions from lawmakers. She added that by refusing to subject herself to questions "some people will assume I have done something wrong. I have not."

After Lerner delivered the

Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, who leads the exempt organizations division under scrutiny for targeting conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, is refusing to testify before Congress, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Lerner was supposed to appear before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday.

The Times reports that Lerner's attorney, William W. Taylor III, sent a letter to the committee chairman saying she would plead the Fifth:

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa. ... The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Issa, a California Republican, has issued a subpoena, compelling her presence at Wednesday's hearing.

Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman is sworn in prior to testifying before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said that he was "not personally responsible" for the agency's practice of placing elevated scrutiny on conservative groups that applied for nonprofit status, but that he regrets it occurred during his tenure.

"I certainly am not personally responsible for creating a list that had inappropriate criteria on it. What I know, with the full facts that are out, is from the inspector general's report, which doesn't say I'm responsible for that," Shulman said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. "With that said, this happened on my watch and I very much regret that it happened on my watch."

Shulman, who served as IRS commissioner from 2008 to 2012, appeared before the Senate panel with outgoing Acting Commissioner Steven Miller and Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George on Tuesday. Both Shulman and Miller have said that the agency acted inappropriately in how it reviewed groups applying for tax-exempt status.

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.