April 22, 2016

Cutting the IRS Budget

This week it was all about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On Wednesday the House considered H.R. 4885, the IRS Oversight While Eliminating Spending (OWES) Act. Under current law, user fees collected by the IRS are available to help fund agency operations, including taxpayer assistance. These user fees represent more than $400 million annually. H.R. 4885 instead directs that money to the Treasury Department, which represents a cut to the IRS budget of 4%. Since 2010, the IRS has lost about 17% of its funding due to budget cuts. This has forced the agency to eliminate jobs and delay technology upgrades. It has lengthened the amount of time taxpayers must wait for their returns to be processed and questions to be answered. It has also impacted the agency’s oversight ability, limiting its capacity to audit tax returns, regrettably an essential task to detect and discourage cheating. I voted NO. H.R. 4885 passed and the entire vote is recorded below:

IRS Employee Oversight

On Wednesday the House also considered H.R. 1206, the No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act. This legislation prevents the IRS from hiring any new employees until the Treasury Secretary certifies that no current employees have any serious tax issues. H.R. 1206 is an unnecessary exercise because under existing IRS rules any employee with a tax delinquency must be terminated. It’s worth noting that 99% of IRS employees are fulfilling their tax filing responsibilities. This percentage is higher than the general public and even higher than House members. H.R. 1206 is a waste of taxpayer resources. I voted NO. H.R. 1206 passed and the entire vote is recorded below:

IRS Workforce Integrity

Yesterday the House considered H.R. 3724, the Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act of 2015. Ostensibly, this legislation prevents the IRS from bringing back an employee who has been terminated. In reality, it is nothing more than a symbolic swipe at the IRS. What if someone is fired “for cause” and that reason is later determined to be an error or rendered moot for some reason? This legislation is a fix in search of a problem since no real life examples of these circumstances have ever been identified. I voted NO. H.R. 3724 passed and the entire vote is recorded below:

IRS Bonuses

On Thursday the House also considered H.R. 4890, the IRS Bonuses Tied to Measurable Metrics Act. This legislation prohibits bonuses from being issued to any IRS employee until the Treasury Secretary establishes a more effective customer service plan. Over the past six years the IRS’ budget has been cut by almost a billion dollars and 12,000 jobs have been lost. Yet the workload of the IRS has not diminished. The agency cannot be expected to accomplish the same level of work with diminished resources. I voted NO. H.R. 4890 passed and the entire vote is recorded below:

What’s Up Next

Votes are scheduled for Tuesday April 26th. The House is expected to consider H.R. 4498, the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups Act; H.R. 4901, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Reauthorization Act and H.J.Res. 88, Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to the definition of the term “Fiduciary”.