The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday said the IRS scandal shows a "culture of cover-ups" and "political intimidation" within the Obama administration.
The ousted head of the IRS on Friday said he was sorry for his agency's targeting conservative and tea party groups for special scrutiny, while a Republican leader said blame could reach as high as the White House.
President Obama has been pleading with House Republican leaders lately to raise government revenues by overhauling the tax code to erase loopholes and other income exemptions.
House Republicans are pushing back against President Obama's program to offer waivers to states on welfare work-requirement standards that critics say undermine a key piece of the 1996 welfare reform law.
President Obama says he hasn't yet scheduled a meeting with Republican Mitt Romney.
Republican congressman W. Todd Akin has been slowly rebuilding his Senate campaign in Missouri after apologizing for inflammatory remarks about pregnancy and rape.
House Republicans will take one last shot at President Obama's executive authority before rushing home for November's elections when they vote this week on a bill blocking him from waiving work requirements from the bipartisan 1996 welfare reform law.
With the presidential campaigns entrenched in hand-to-hand fighting, Democrats are looking for a way to capture the voters' attention. They think they've found the edge with new policies designed to increase government dependency. The latest gambit would relieve benefit recipients of any personal responsibility.
After successfully blocking funding for the IRS to implement President Obama's health care law last year, Republicans recoiled at news this week that the administration is filtering a half-billion dollars to the agency so it can hire more agents to carry out the law's new requirements.
