Rep. Lynn Jenkins, Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, tells Newsmax that members of Congress were "lied to consistently" about the IRS' targeting of tea party and other conservative groups.
The Kansas legislator also says the IRS and other scandals unfolding recently are signs that the federal government has "run amok."
Jenkins was first elected in 2008 and is a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, Jenkins was asked where she believes the directive came from to target certain groups.
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"The investigation has just begun but we intend to get to the bottom of that and find out where the directive came from, who ordered it, and hopefully hold those folks responsible," she says.
"We still have more questions than we have answers. If you tuned in to our Ways and Means meeting last week you heard the acting commissioner, who is now resigned effective in June, say he didn't know as the answer to the majority of the questions. So we still have an incredible amount of work to do.
"What we do know is that people were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service based on their political beliefs. There's outrage on both sides of the aisle, and it's just indicative of a big government. We've had several scandals unfold here in recent days and weeks and it's all indicative of a government that's too big, that's run amok. It makes a case not only for fundamental tax reform, which the Ways and Means Committee has been working on for several years, but also for a smaller, more limited government."
There is a proposal in the House that the woman who was in charge of the IRS' nonprofit unit, who's now working on the healthcare side of the IRS, should be stripped of her role.
Jenkins comments: "We're going to be taking a look at all those issues but there is concern that you have an agency headed by this woman who targeted conservatives for their political beliefs now in charge of implementing the president's healthcare law.
"Naturally, once certain individuals have been targeted for their political beliefs, there's concern that the pattern will continue. What's frustrating is there was never an attempt to reprimand anyone or to hold these folks accountable.
"During the hearing last week I asked both Commissioner [Steven] Miller and the investigator at what point did they alert the Treasury to this scandal. It was over a year ago that the deputy treasurer at Treasury knew this was going on, and yet nothing has been done about it to date.
"We know the White House was made [aware] sometime in April, and even though we have these ongoing investigations from the Ways and Means Committee, no one thought to tell us until we heard the reports from a planted question in a Bar Association meeting.
"I mean there's just outrage that we were lied to consistently by individuals at the IRS. There was an investigation and no one brought the information to us."
Some observers are saying that members of the GOP might be overreaching on the IRS scandal.
Asked how Republicans should go after this issue with tenacity but not to the point that it appears like the party is overreaching, Jenkins responds: "We like to make decisions based on facts. In the end, I would agree that no one needs to get ahead of the facts here and that's why the hearing that we had last week was helpful.
"But now we have more questions than we have answers. We need to take the next step and to continue to investigate. No one should get ahead of the facts."