Senior agency officials ineffectively managed the situation, according to a federal watchdog report.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) sat down Tuesday with the acting IRS commissioner, Steven Miller, as the heat over the agency's scrutiny of Tea Party groups intensified.

A Baucus spokesman said the Finance chairman "didn't pull any punches" in the meeting with Miller. "It was a tough talk," the spokesman, Sean Neary, said in a statement.

The meeting came shortly before an awaited Treasury audit of the IRS's singling out of conservative groups began circulating, which found "ineffective management" at the agency and said the IRS would need to do more to regain the public's trust. Read more...

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) announced Tuesday that it planned to sue the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), accusing it of leaking confidential tax documents to a political rival.

The group, which opposes same-sex marriage, said it was yet another victim of the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, accusing the agency of leaking confidential tax documents to the same-sex marriage advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

"Not only has the IRS retaliated against conservative, small-government and tea party groups as they apply for recognition of tax exemption AND lied about it, but it has criminally released our confidential tax return including the identity of dozens of major donors to a political enemy,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “In addition to being our principal combatant in the war on traditional marriage, the HRC’s president at the time was serving as a Co-Chair of President Obama’s reelection campaign. This is a chilling set of circumstances that should ring alarm bells across the nation.”

The top two lawmakers on the House's powerful tax-writing committee are requesting all documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) related to the agency singling out groups based on their politics. 

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and panel ranking member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) sent a letter to the IRS on Tuesday calling on acting Commissioner Steve Miller to turn over any documents that details their targeting of Tea Party and any other groups they might have looked at more closely. 

“I am astounded and appalled that the IRS targeted organizations based on their political beliefs," Camp said.

"The IRS’s repeated failure to be truthful is completely unethical and an embarrassment to this government," he said. 

Probe will look into whether the IRS broke laws by targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

The CBO said the deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion — the smallest since before Obama took office.

Four Republicans voted against the bill: Sens. Pat Roberts, Mitch McConnell, Mike Johanns and John Thune.

Acting Energy Department (DOE) Secretary Daniel Poneman said the Obama administration is not backing down from requests that India eschew solar policies that it says might violate international trade rules.

At issue are Indian requirements that solar energy firms buy all inputs from domestic producers. The subcontinent says that will help grow its solar industry, but the U.S. contends local-content requirements are outlawed by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“At this point our view is, we are in a discussion with India. Our views on … local content are clear, and we’re hoping we can work through this,” Poneman told The Hill on Tuesday after speaking at the U.S.-India Energy Partnership Summit in Washington, D.C.

House hunters are the beneficiaries of a historically high affordability conditions that could help further propel the housing sector's improvement. 

In all, 73.7 percent of new and existing homes sold between the January through March quarter were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $64,400, according to a National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), released on Tuesday.

The figure is down slightly from the 74.9 percent in the final quarter of last year. The index has not dropped below 70 since the end of 2008. 

"Thanks to very favorable mortgage rates and prices, housing affordability has remained quite high over the past four years," said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder from Charlotte, N.C.