A person walks along the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, DC, August 2022. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
Now that Republicans are in charge of the House, they are moving full speed ahead to fulfill one of their most important promises: defunding the Internal Revenue Service.
“Our first bill will eliminate funding for 87,000 new IRS agents,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said shortly after taking the gavel early Saturday morning to cheers from his party. “You see, we believe that the government should help you, not persecute you.”
GOP lawmakers have opposed the nearly $80 billion the IRS will receive over the next decade as part of the Democrats’ Cut Inflation Act since the law was passed last summer. Republicans say the agency intends to hire an army of new agents to harass taxpayers, even though the IRS has said the money will be used to improve customer service, support operations and address other needs. It has already hired several thousand new employees to help taxpayers with the upcoming filing season.
One of the GOP’s first moves, which could happen as early as Monday, is to consider the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act. It would cancel more than $71 billion in supplemental funding from the IRS.
The bill, which has no hope of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, would increase the deficit by more than $114 billion over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Monday.
More background: The House vote would fulfill a promise McCarthy made in September that the top priority of the House Republican majority would be to repeal “harmful provisions” in the Cut Inflation Act, the right-leaning America on Monday said prosperity, urging lawmakers to support the bill.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, criticized the GOP legislation in the House of Representatives.
“The CBO confirmed what has been obvious from the beginning — the Republican IRS bill, a gift to wealthy tax cheats, will add $114 billion to the deficit,” said Wyden, a Democrat.
The White House has already vowed that President Joe Biden would veto the legislation if it came to his desk, calling the bill “reckless.”
“Far from protecting middle-class families or small businesses, HR 23 protects wealthy tax cheats at the expense of honest, middle-class taxpayers,” the White House said in a statement on the bill.
He also noted that the Treasury Secretary has already directed that additional IRS funding not be used to increase audit rates over historical levels for small businesses or households with incomes below $400,000.
Republicans have already successfully cut IRS funding, cutting more than $275 million from the agency’s budget in the fiscal year 2023 federal spending bill that passed last month. It provided the IRS with $12.3 billion for the current fiscal year.
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