If you need any indication of the IRS’s administration of Obamacare is going to go, look no further than this story. Last Friday, it was announced that the agency had hired CGI Federal, which is probably better known as the same firm that handled the rollout of the Affordable Care Act so well. From the Fiscal Times:

If that’s what they wanted, spending more than $4.5 million to hire the same contractor that botched the rollout of the Healthcare.gov website in 2013 probably wasn’t the best move. Hiring CGI Federal to provide “critical functions” related to the further implementation of the Affordable Care Actc [sic] was practically asking for a congressional investigation.

And investigate they will, it appears. Congressman Pete Roskam (R-IL), who chairs the Ways and Means’ Oversight subcommittee, sent a rightfully angry letter to John Koskinen, the head of the IRS. In it, he says:

As you know, in January 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services fired CGI Federal after its disastrous rollout of the HealthCare.gov website. Shortly thereafter, Massachusetts followed suit, firing CGI for its poor performance developing the state health exchange website. Governor Deval Patrick called CGI Federal a “disappointing partner.” In August 2014, Vermont also fired CGI Federal for its “unacceptable” work creating its state exchange website. I am concerned that just months after the HHS and Massachusetts firings, the IRS selected the same contractor to provide critical technology services related to the administration of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The letter also includes a long list of things the subcommittee is requesting from the agency. This list consists of the contract between the agency and CGI Federal; any information on competing bids; the agency’s request for proposals and a work statement associated with the contract; information relating to how and why the IRS chose CGI Federal, including the names of any officials involved with the process; all the agency’s internal communications on the matter; and a description of any controls the IRS has set in place to make sure the mistakes of the Obamacare rollout are not repeated.

It will be interesting to see how this story develops, but I would expect some stonewalling. It’s typical of bureaucracy and, in particular, bureaucracy under the Obama administration. If this truly is the best firm the IRS could find to implement “critical actions” of the Affordable Care Act, then that really does not give us any reason to have confidence that the rollout on the IRS’s side will go any smoother than what happened with the federal exchange.