Once they take back control of Congress, GOP leadership will defund the 87,000 IRS agents the Biden administration recently announced it will be hiring
The agents were hired as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this year. The act included $80 billion to hire as many as 87,000 more IRS agents in the coming decade.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) said last month that “reversing Democrats’ efforts to fund the IRS would be the No. 1 priority for his party,” according to the Washington Examiner.
“On that very first day that we’re sworn in, you’ll see that it all changes,” McCarthy said. “Because on our very first bill, we’re going to repeal 87,000 IRS agents. Our job is to work for you, not go after you. Our job is to make America stronger.”
In addition, Republicans have learned that last May, the IRS destroyed 30 million paper-filed “information returns” which must be filed by small businesses in various transactions, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The IRS is ignoring requests by members of Congress to explain why the agency destroyed taxpayers’ records.
Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) and Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member Tom Rice (R-S.C.) were outraged at the action. “The Administration’s refusal to respond to the Committee, engage in a substantive discussion with staff about the request, and ultimately deny access to the decision memorandum obstructs the Congress’ important role to conduct oversight.”
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The IRS said it destroyed the 30 million documents due to “software limitations,” which has raised suspicions of lawmakers. To release the document to destroy would indicate a “significant risk to the agency,” IRS officials wrote.
“This blanket refusal from the IRS based on a perceived risk to the agency is unacceptable,” wrote Brady and Rice. “Congressional oversight does not stop whenever the executive branch identifies a perceived risk.”
Representative Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) has filed legislation to defund the Biden plan, and other Republicans are jumping on board. “Let me tell you – we’re going to have to look at ways to be effective, and I’m not going to box myself in on anything,” Representative Jason Smith stated, “but we need to defund this $80 billion. How we do it, I’ll leave it up to the leadership to decide what’s best with that, but the American people want this $80 billion eliminated and defunded.”
