The White House said Thursday that House conservatives’ efforts to impeach IRS chief John Koskinen is an “indication of entirely misplaced priorities.”
Two Republican congressman formally offered a resolution to oust Koskinen on Tuesday — a largely symbolic gesture because the GOP would have no chance of winning the two-thirds majority required to convict him in the Senate. Republicans control just 54 of that chamber’s 100 seats.
The resolution sponsored by Reps. John Fleming, R-La., and Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., could reach the House floor for a vote in some form Thursday, but its fate is unclear. House Republican leaders could decide to hold a vote to table the resolution, or cast it aside, but even a vote on the measure itself could fail given opposition from within the GOP.
Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest took both GOP lawmakers to task, arguing that the move is “exactly the type of behavior that got [Huelskamp] booted out of office.” Fleming, he said, should be more focused on helping his state recover from devastating floods.
“Apparently he is focused on some different things, and the people of Louisiana” will have a chance to decide whether it’s a good use of his time when they go to the polls in November, Earnest said.
Huelskamp, a member of the staunch conservative Freedom Caucus, lost his primary to a political newcomer, Roger Marshall, in early August. Marshall won with support of the business groups and the agriculture lobby, which began opposing Huelskamp after then-Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, ousted him from the Agriculture Committee in 2012.
