WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will work to ensure that gay and lesbian Americans are eligible to take leave from their jobs to care for a same-sex spouse, regardless of whether they live in a state that recognizes gay marriage, the White House said today.

President Barack Obama is directing the Labor Department to start drafting rules making clear that the Family and Medical Leave Act applies to same-sex couples, allowing gay and lesbian employees to take unpaid leave to care for a sick spouse regardless of where they live.

The move comes three years after the Obama administration stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act, which lets states refuse to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

The White House is promoting the move as part of Obama's push to expand protections for gays and lesbians by allowing same-sex couples to take advantage of the same federal benefits available to married heterosexual couples.

WASHINGTON — In the week since the Internal Revenue Service acknowledged it can’t produce e-mails from seven officials connected to the tea party investigation, there are mysteries about computer crashes inside the agency, the government’s efforts to recover all the missing data and why the IRS assured a congressman it would provide him with e-mails it already knew were lost.The IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, was expected to face questions today from lawmakers for the first time about the missing e-mails.The congressional investigation has been highly politicized because of allegations that the IRS improperly singled out tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status.An FBI investigation is ongoing.The Internal Revenue Service said last week it became aware of the missing e-mails in February and March of this year, and it blamed at least two separate computer crashes.