Domestic Taxes

Top Oversight Democrat Elijah Cummings has threatened to release the full interviews with IRS staffers in the targeting probe.

Congress will have until October or even November before the nation is in danger of defaulting on its debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The CBO provided an update to its debt limit projections Tuesday, determining that the "extraordinary measures" available to the Treasury Department should buy enough time under the nation's borrowing cap that the nation will be well into the fall before that borrowing limit becomes an issue.

Lawmakers have yet to really even begin discussing what it would take to agree to boost the borrowing limit, although Republicans have indicated that again they will be demanding major fiscal reforms in exchange for an increase.

NSA case shows reliance on spies for hire.

An FBI insider trading probe is looking at Congress.

The EU to file complaint against China with World Trade Organization over steel tubes.

Banks profit while helping fraudsters, who particularly prey on the elderly. 

States starting programs where investors would fund social services programs.

Tumbling water levels hurt Great Lakes shipping.

Republicans let loose after a House Democrat suggested it’s time to end the congressional investigations into the IRS. 

The Treasury Department has informed leaders of the congressional tax-writing committees of a title change for the temporary head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) until President Obama nominates a permanent commissioner.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that Danny Werfel's title will change to principal deputy commissioner and deputy commissioner for services and enforcement until the White House announces its next head of the agency, according to a letter obtained by The Hill. 

Under current law, the departure of former Commissioner Doug Shulman in December started a 210-day clock for which his replacement could be called the acting commissioner. That threshold was hit Monday, necessitating a title change, Lew told the top Republicans and Democrats on the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committee in a letter dated Friday. 

Lew said Werfel "will continue to lead the agency and will have the authority to perform all the delegable duties and responsibilities of the commissioner of the IRS," according to the letter. 

The IRS has placed someone new in a senior position in the agency’s exempt organizations division, as it continues to reshuffle in the face of controversy.

Karen Schiller, currently a staffer in the small business and self-employed division, started Monday as the director of ruling and agreements in the exempt organizations division. Read more...

Tax writers in the House will turn their attention back to reforming the code this week as they await information about the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. 

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday will hold a hearing on how tax havens have eroded the U.S. tax base. It will be the panel’s first hearing on tax reform since the IRS scandal broke last month.

Although no public events are scheduled on the IRS targeting this week, staffers for Ways and Means and other congressional panels are interviewing IRS officials behind the scenes to lay the groundwork for more hearings.

The tax reform discussion will continue on Friday morning when the primary congressional advocates of tax reform — Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) — speak about their plans at a public breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

GOP members say Danny Werfel will have to move beyond placing staffers on leave in order to retain their support.

"I want every syllable of those transcripts to be released," Cummings said on CNN.

The staffer told congressional investigators that a Washington official was the driving force behind the targeting of Tea Party organizations.