IRS Accused of Mismanaging Tea Party Applications

A new report says that the nation's tax collection agency did not properly handle applications from Tea Party groups.

The bipartisan Senate Finance Committee says it could not determine whether conservative groups who faced years of applications delays were specifically targeted by the Internal Revenue Service based on their politics, nor the possible level of involvement in those delays by the White House or the United States Treasury Department.

However, in the report specific mention was made of Lois Lernier, the former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit, the IRS division responsible for overseeing tax-exempt groups.