Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, chairman of the House State Government Committee, said the June 5 hearing would focus on how Pennsylvania’s state’s campaign-finance laws are being applied and enforced.

Mr. Metcalfe said the session was prompted by the actions of Pennsylvanians for Accountability, a Pittsburgh-based 501(c)(4) group that has run television ads attacking Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and four GOP lawmakers. “Based on the way they are operating, they appear to be a political committee more than anything else,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the organization said its primary purpose was not political but to advocate publicly about the governor’s budget plans. She called the hearing a “partisan attempt” to quell the group’s criticism.

Bill Nowling, a spokesman for emergency manager Kevyn Orr, said there are no plans for a fire sale of the museum’s holdings, which include works by Van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin, Rembrandt, and other masters.

Mr. Nowling said Thursday the appraisal is part of an effort to have information at the ready when Detroit’s creditors, who will be asked to absorb considerable losses, ask about the city’s assets. “We obviously don’t want to get rid of art,” he said.

Richard Koshalek, who arrived at the Hirshhorn in 2009 and strongly backed the addition, will leave his post by the end of the year. The Seasonal Inflatable Structure, as it is officially known, would periodically turn the interior courtyard of the doughnut-shaped museum into an enclosed space for discussions and special events. But the project, launched in late 2009, has been plagued by delays, and its estimated cost has tripled.

“The board was divided and could not reach a decision,” Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin said. “I think Richard was looking for a very broad endorsement, and that didn’t happen. It wasn’t about the Bubble and what it could do architecturally or what it could do for the Hirshhorn. It was much more about finances going forward.”

The Adelsons are major contributors to Jewish causes in Israel and the United States, including the Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Jerusalem and the Zionist Organization of America. They have now given a total of $180-million to Birthright.

“Exposing young Jews to Israel helps broaden their awareness and deepen their cultural identity. We are committed to the goal of all young Jewish adults having the opportunity to be inspired by their ancestral homeland,” Miriam Adelson said.

The move Thursday followed Ms. Lerner’s refusal to testify about the division’s heightened scrutiny of conservative organizations applying for nonprofit status. Appearing Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, she read a statement but invoked her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions.

Mr. Corbin is currently deputy director of the IRS office that processes tax returns. In an e-mail to the agency staff, Mr. Werfel said Mr. Corbin’s experience and management background made him “an ideal choice to help lead the exempt organizations area through this difficult period.”

Read more of The Chronicle’s coverage of the IRS controversy.

The ban, which the Scouts publicly reaffirmed as recently as last July, will end in January 2014. More than 60 percent of some 1,400 volunteer scouting leaders meeting in Texas supported the policy change, which was backed by CEO Wayne Brock and other top national scouting officials.

Gay activists praised the move but said they will continue to press the Boy Scouts, and the organization’s donors, to reverse a ban on homosexual adults serving as troop leaders, which remains in place. Conservative groups that opposed any change in the Scouts’ policy on sexual orientation predicted a mass exodus of parents and children from the organization.

After the vote, national Scouts President Wayne Perry sought to put the rancor and wrenching debate over the gay policy behind the scouting community. “We’re moving forward together. Everyone agrees on one thing, no matter how you feel about this issue, kids are better off in scouting,” he said.

See this Chronicle article on the fundraising stakes for the organization as it weighed this decision.

See this Chronicle report on her testimony to Congress on Wednesday.

The organization’s membership remains deeply divided on the issue, according to The New York Times.

Read more Chronicle coverage of the Scouts’ proposal and its impact on donors.

Read more of The Chronicle’s coverage of the IRS controversy.