“The Majority staff on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has issued the foregoing report titled IRS and TIGTA Management Failures Related to 501(c)(4) Applicants Engaged in Campaign Activity. The primary conclusion of the Majority staff report is that, contrary to common understanding and widespread reporting, the IRS actually exhibited no bias in its review of conservative groups. The Majority staff report claims that the IRS targeted liberal and conservative groups equally and that a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report on the targeting of conservative groups was fundamentally flawed.  The Subcommittee Minority staff sharply disagrees with the conclusions reached by the Majority staff report. While some liberal groups were examined by the IRS from May 2010 to May 2012, there were far fewer such groups, they were systematically separate from the review of conservative groups, their questioning was far less intrusive, and, in some cases, the liberal
groups were affiliates of specific organizations like ACORN that had behaved illegally in the past and could reasonably expect additional scrutiny. The inclusion of a scant few liberal groupsby the IRS does not bear comparison to the targeting of conservative groups. Although the Majority and Minority have profound differences and were unable to come to an agreement in their analysis of this matter, the Subcommittee conducted its investigation through joint interviews and document requests and continued its tradition of in-depth fact finding and frequent consultations that are the hallmark of the Subcommittee’s oversight work and lead to a deepened understanding of key issues.”