Ryan stops short of backing impeachment of IRS chief

WASHINGTON — Despite his frequent criticism of the Internal Revenue Service, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan stopped short Thursday of backing a committee effort to impeach the agency’s commissioner, John Koskinen.

Ryan’s answer was effectively a no.

“Yes, I think this is an agency that has not been led well and this is an agency that needs to be cleaned up,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “As far as these other issues, look, what I think what we need to do is win an election, get better people in these agencies and reform the tax code so we’re not harassing the average taxpayer with a tax code that they can’t even understand.”

However, Ryan said he is supportive of how the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has handled the IRS matter. He noted that congressional scrutiny has exposed scandals at the agency and that lawmakers have held it accountable through riders passed in last year’s omnibus appropriations bills.