In the wake of the scandal regarding the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, President Barack Obama announced that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller has resigned.
Obama delivered a statement in the East Room of the White House Wednesday evening indicating that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requested and accepted Miller's resignation.
Miller's resignation comes after an inspector general report confirmed that IRS personnel improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
"Given the controversy surrounding this audit, it's important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward," Obama said.
The president said the conducted uncovered by the report is "inexcusable," adding, "Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it."
In addition to Miller's resignation, Obama said the IRS will put in new safeguards to prevent similar behavior in the future and promised that the White House will work with Congress as it performs its oversight role.
Obama said, "I'll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards, and going forward, by making sure that the law is applied as it should be -- in a fair and impartial way."
"And we're going to have to make sure that the laws are clear so that we can have confidence that they are enforced in a fair and impartial way, and that there's not too much ambiguity surrounding these laws," he added. "So that's what I expect. That's what the American people deserve. And that's what we're going to do."
In a memo sent to IRS employees, Miller acknowledged the need to restore public trust in the IRS and said he believes the agency will benefit from having a new acting commissioner during this challenging period.
Miller penned an op-ed for USA Today earlier in the week admitting that the IRS made mistakes in handling a surge in applications for tax-exempt status from advocacy groups but arguing that the targeting of certain groups for additional scrutiny was not politically motivated.
"Because the law limits and in some cases prohibits political intervention by exempt organizations, the IRS must carefully review applications based on the facts of each case," Miller wrote.
The IRS chief said the way the agency initially centralized the cases did not make sense, indicating that a shortcut was taken to determine which groups needed additional review.
Miller argued that the agency has implemented new procedures to avoid the earlier mistakes and claimed applications from all parts of the political spectrum receive the same, even-handed treatment.
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