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美国税局代局长卸任前被共和党议员严厉讯问

Republican lawmakers hammered the outgoing Internal Revenue Service Commissioner¹, Steven Miller², Friday, over a report that IRS staff members had targeted conservative "Tea Party" groups for extra scrutiny³ and delayed their applications for tax exempt⁴ status. Miller, who resigned this week, admitted mistakes were made. But he said he does not believe the staff members were motivated by political partisanship⁵.

美国共和党国会议员对星期五出席国会听证的国税局代理局长米勒就国税局对保守的茶党组织进行额外的税务严查并延迟其免税申请的事宜进行严厉讯问。刚刚提出辞职的米勒承认国税局犯了错，但是他说，他不认为国税局员工是出于党派偏见而犯的错。

Appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee just two days after his resignation, outgoing IRS Acting⁶ Commissioner Steven Miller came under fire from Republican lawmakers who asked why he did not inform Congress his agency was singling out conservative groups for excessive scrutiny.

就在国税局代理局长米勒提出辞职两天后，众议院筹款委员会召开听证会，严厉质询米勒为什么没有事先告知国会国税局针对保守组织进行额外的税务严查。来自德州的共和党议员布雷迪率先责问。

"Mr. Miller, who in the IRS is responsible for targeting conservative organizations?" asked Republican Kevin Brady.

布雷迪议员说：“米勒先生，国税局中谁为针对保守组织严查来负责？”

Miller said he could not name names, but he did apologize. "I think that what happened here was that foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload⁷ selection," he said.

米勒说，他无法点名，但他表示道歉。他说：“我认为这是一些员工试图提高工作效率而导致的愚蠢的错误。”

Miller said he does not believe there was any political partisanship involved, and he explained that IRS staffers were trying to process a flood of applications from conservative "Tea Party" groups for tax exempt status starting around 2010.

米勒说，他不认为这是由于党派偏见导致的错误。他解释说，国税局员工自从2010年起就开始处理海量涌入的来自保守茶党组织的免税申请。

The Republican committee chairman, Dave Camp, said the scandal had damaged President Barack Obama and his administration.

筹款委员会主席共和党人坎普说，这件丑闻已经伤害到奥巴马总统及其内阁。

"Well, under this administration the IRS has abused its power to tax, and it has destroyed what little hope and faith and hope the American people had in getting a fair shake in Washington," said Camp.

坎普说：“在这届政府的管理下，国税局滥用其征税权，令美国人民对华盛顿秉公施政的希望和信任丧失殆尽。”

Democratic lawmakers countered that Republicans should not use what they agreed was a serious issue to try to score political points and tarnish⁸ the president.

民主党议员反驳说，共和党人不应该将此事定义为所谓的严重丑闻，来试图获取政治筹码，损伤总统。

"So I would really ask the chairman and my colleagues on the other side, let's get the answers. Ask the questions, get the facts and then we can draw our own conclusions," said Democratic Congressman⁹ Joseph Crowley.

来自纽约州的国会众议员克劳利说：“我恳请主席和共和党同仁，让我们来找到答案。提出疑问，找到事实，然后我们会得出自己的结论。”

Republican-led committees in the House of Representatives are likely to keep asking questions about this scandal - and others plaguing President Obama and his administration - for months to come.

共和党人领导的众院筹款委员会很可能会在未来几个月里继续追查国税局丑闻，以及其他能损伤奥巴马总统及其内阁的丑闻。