The IRS was cited by a government watchdog for a $4.1 million training conference featuring luxury rooms and free drinks, even as conservative figures told Congress Tuesday they had been abused for years while seeking tax-exempt status.

His agency under relentless fire, the new head of the Internal Revenue Service acknowledged to Congress on Monday that American taxpayers no longer trust the IRS amid a growing number of scandals from the targeting of conservative political groups to lavish spending on employee conferences.

The storm engulfing the Internal Revenue Service over the targeting of conservative political groups could provide a boost for lawmakers who want to rewrite the nation's tax laws.

The IRS official who led the unit that targeted tea party groups and publicly disclosed the activity was put on administrative leave.

Three days of congressional hearings about the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups have lawmakers looking for ways to widen an investigation that has so far been largely contained within the tax collection agency.

A key figure in the IRS's targeting of conservative groups plans to invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

A top House Republican charges that the IRS's improper use of tougher scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status seems part of a broader pattern of intimidation and cover-ups by the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama picked a senior White House budget official to become the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, the same day another top official announced plans to leave the agency amid the controversy over agents targeting tea party groups.