Ethics investigators publicly accused several Internal Revenue Service employees and offices Wednesday of engaging in pro-Democratic politics on government time, including one agency office in Dallas where employees posting pro-Obama stickers and buttons was "commonplace."Republicans on Capitol Hill said it was more evidence that the embattled tax agency is politically biased against conservative groups, even as they moved ahead with action to discipline the IRS and former employee Lois G. Lerner.
One House committee voted to officially accuse Ms. Lerner of criminal behavior, and another prepared to vote Thursday to hold Ms. Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about her role in scrutinizing tea party applications for tax-exempt status.
The criminal accusation and the contempt citation, which will require approval by the full House, are requests of the Justice Department, and it's unclear how Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will handle them.
"The IRS is out of control," said Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas, one of the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee to vote for the criminal accusation against Ms. Lerner.
He said accusations of IRS employees politicking on government time hurt Americans' faith in the agency. "It's no surprise that this is coming from the very same agency that targeted Americans based on their political beliefs."
The Office of Special Counsel, which is charged with enforcing violations of the federal Hatch Act that prohibits most government employees from engaging in politics, listed three violations it found in the past few years.
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