Republicans set to vote on cutting $70 billion in Internal Revenue Service funding TONIGHT

The first legislative agenda for the GOP under its new control in the House is to vote to cut 90 percent of the IRS enforcement funding that Democrats appropriated last Congress.

On Monday night, the House will first debate and vote on its contentious package of rules, negotiated by new Speaker Kevin McCarthy with his right-wing detractors.

Next, the House will take up the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, a bill that would recover $72 billion from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to prevent the agency from examining the finances of more Americans.

The bill is likely dead by the time it reaches the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-48 lead after Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse left to become president of the University of Florida on Monday.

Last year, the Democrat-approved Cut Inflation Act included $80 billion in new funding for the IRS to hire some 87,000 new agents.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Michelle Steel, R-Calif., maintains funding for improved customer service and technology upgrades, but rescinds funding for new audits.

Of the $80 billion, only $3.2 billion, or four percent, was dedicated to improving taxpayer service.

Most taxpayers who have ever had to deal with the IRS know the frustration of trying to get an agent on the phone: The agency answered only 10 percent of the 167 million phone calls it received in filing season. of taxes of 2022.

Smith had been seeking to chair the powerful Ways and Means tax drafting committee but was defeated by Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo.

Early Saturday morning, when McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel after 15 ballot disputes, he promised that the first order of business would be to defund the IRS.

‘Our first bill will revoke funding for 87,000 new IRS agents. Because the government should be here to help them, not persecute them,’ he said in his victory speech.

Later this week, the House will vote to establish a select committee on China, to establish a subcommittee under the Judiciary Committee to investigate the ‘weaponization’ of the Justice Department, and to prevent the Biden administration from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.

“The last thing the American people need right now is more audits of a bloated and out-of-control IRS,” Smith said in a statement before the vote.

“The Administration’s $45 billion plan to hire 87,000 new IRS agents and target Americans with a deluge of audits was absurd from the start, especially as families and small business owners battle skyrocketing prices. caused by reckless government spending,” Steel added in a statement. .

The new audits were to offset some $739 billion in primarily climate and social spending.

Before the vote, the White House issued a statement against the bill.

“This reckless bill would increase the deficit by nearly $115 billion over 10 years according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office by allowing wealthy tax evaders to engage in additional tax fraud and evasion,” a statement from the Office of Management and Budget.

“To be clear, the Treasury Secretary has already directed that none of the additional IRS resources be used to increase audit fees relative to historical levels for small businesses or households with incomes under $400,000.”

While the number of audits of middle-income individuals may increase, it will increase in line with the audit rate of high-income individuals, the Treasury Department said. Janet Yellen said in a directive to IRS chief Charles Rettig in August.