At a July 29 hearing conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts (
video and testimony at hearing), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) had a lengthy exchange with IRS Commissioner John Koskinen over whether the IRS would revoke the tax-exempt status of Christian colleges and universities that remain opposed to same-sex marriage. According to the
Christian Post, Koskinen pledged:
that he will commit to making sure that the IRS does not punish religious schools for not adopting policies to accommodate gay marriage — such as allowing married same-sex couples to live in married student housing — as long as he is in charge of the IRS..... However, Koskinen did leave the door wide open for tax-exempt statuses to be a problem for Christian schools in the future....
All we do is follow whatever the public policy is that is set by other organizations," Koskinen argued. "At this point other actions would have to take place before the IRS can consider issuing a regulation, which would give people notices to what we think the public policy was and then cases and exams would be conducted under that.
[Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]
