Clinton nominates members of IRS oversight board

President Clinton has nominated five people to serve on the nine-member IRS management oversight board.

The board, established in last year's IRS restructuring and reform law, will oversee IRS operations. The panel was designed to oversee IRS operations, recommend future candidates to be IRS commissioners and advise the President when it feels a commissioner should be fired.

The board will include three permanent members: the Treasury Secretary, the IRS commissioner and a representative of IRS employees. The other six members are to be private citizens with management experience.

President Clinton was supposed to nominate the six private citizens for the board by Jan. 22. On May 28, Clinton nominated four private citizens, as well as the representative of IRS employees-National Treasury Employees Union President Robert Tobias. The two remaining board members have not yet been picked, a White House spokesman said. He said there was no information on when the remaining members will be nominated.

All of the board members besides the Treasury Secretary and the IRS commissioner must be confirmed by the Senate.

In April, White House spokesman Barry Toiv said the Jan. 22 deadline was unrealistic, because it gave the administration only six months to complete the search process, including FBI background checks.

Besides Tobias, the other nominees are:

• Steve H. Nickles, a professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law and the Babcock Graduate School of Management.
• James W. Wetzler, a market unit leader for a multi-state tax practice in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
• Karen Hastie Williams, a partner in the law firm of Crowell & Moring, specializing in public contract law, legislation and federal budget practices.
• Larry R. Levitan, a recently retired executive with Andersen Consulting.

"The administration has really dropped the ball here," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, at a May 25 IRS oversight hearing. He said the White House had circulated the names of its appointees in advance, and the names were not of the caliber Grassley was expecting.

Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., also expressed frustration at the delay in making the appointments, as did Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, R-Del.