IRS admits to targeting conservative groups

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans already are conducting several investigations into the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of tea party groups ahead of the 2012 elections.

Congressman Mike Rogers tells "Fox News Sunday" that IRS "intimidation of political groups" is a dangerous problem that "should send a chill" up the spine. The Michigan Republican says Congress need to figure out where it stops and who is involved.

The IRS has blamed low-level employees, and apologized for what it called the "inappropriate" targeting of conservative groups during the 2012 election. But Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she "doesn't buy that." She says if it had just been a few employees, then higher-level supervisors "would have rushed to make this public, fired the employees involved, apologized to the American people and informed Congress." She says none of that happened "in a timely way."

And Collins tells CNN that she's disappointed that President Barack Obama "hasn't personally condemned this."

According to a draft of a watchdog's report that is to be released in the coming days, senior IRS officials knew that agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011.

Cox Media Group