May 16
Biographical information on Daniel Werfel
Biographical information on Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Daniel Werfel:
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Biographical information on Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Daniel Werfel:
As senior military leaders and government officials grapple with how to reduce sexual assaults in the military, a Pentagon report provides details of the problem. The numbers may not add up in all cases due to rounding or smaller categories that were not included.
The controversy over the government's secret subpoena of Associated Press telephone records has revived legislation that protect journalists from having to reveal their sources to federal investigators - and the White House is endorsing the idea.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday ordered the military to recertify all 25,000 people involved in programs designed to prevent and respond to sexual assault, an acknowledgement that assaults have escalated beyond the Pentagon's control.

The Obama administration denounced Russia on Friday for providing Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime with anti-ship missiles, saying the weapons would only worsen a war that Washington and Moscow have been promising to work together on stopping.
The government allowed "a small but significant number" of terrorists into America's witness protection program and then failed to provide the names of some of them for a watch list that's used to keep dangerous people off airline flights, the Justice Department's inspector general says.
Congress is rethinking the broad authority it gave the president to wage a war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in light of how President Barack Obama has used the power to target suspected terrorists with lethal drone strikes.
The Obama administration has added four Syrian government ministers to a U.S. terror blacklist as well as the leader of an al-Qaida-linked organization fighting President Bashar Assad's (bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd) regime.

Forget, for just a moment, about a shield law for the media.
President Barack Obama will appoint senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel to be acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, a White House official says.

Companies that drill for oil and natural gas on federal lands will be required to disclose publicly the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations, the Obama administration said Thursday. The new "fracking" rule replaces a draft proposed last year that was withdrawn amid industry complaints that federal regulation could hinder an ongoing boom in natural gas production.

The House and Senate Agriculture Committees laid the groundwork this week for reducing the size of the federal food stamp program, approving farm bills that would shrink food aid and alter the way people qualify for it.
A second federal appeals court has found that President Barack Obama exceeded his power when he bypassed the Senate to install a member to the National Labor Relations Board.
Members of Connecticut's congressional delegation announced plans Thursday to try to secure federal funds to help Newtown build a new elementary school after last year's massacre - and they say senators owe the residents after failing to support legislation that would have expanded background checks for certain gun purchases.
U.S. officials have identified the Fort Hood soldier accused of sexual assault, including possibly arranging for at least one woman to have sex for money. He is Sgt. 1st Class Gregory McQueen, coordinator of a sexual assault prevention program at the Texas post.
The Justice Department's inspector general says the department failed to provide the names of some terrorists in the witness protection program to the government's Terrorist Screening Center.

One more time, with feeling! The Republican-led House voted yet again Thursday to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, knowing full well that won't stop it.
A bipartisan group of House members announced a deal Thursday on sweeping immigration legislation, a breakthrough that could boost chances for one of President Barack Obama's top second-term priorities.

Physicist Ernest Moniz won unanimous Senate confirmation Thursday to be the nation's new energy secretary.

President Barack Obama on Thursday tried to turn the tables on Republicans who have criticized his administration's response to last year's deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, calling on lawmakers to approve his request to increase funding for diplomatic security.