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Democrats fume over proposed IRS cuts
Story by Tobias Burns
• 10h •
Democrats fume over proposed IRS cuts© Provided by The Hill
Democrats are fuming mad over Republican proposals to scale back IRS funding and defund the agency’s new free online tax filing system.
House Ways and Means Democrats called Republicans’ latest Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill “disastrous” in a Thursday statement, blasting the GOP for risking another fight over spending that led to the
downgrading of U.S. creditworthiness by a major ratings agency last year.
“It seems like Republicans’ 2023-2024 appropriations disaster wasn’t enough for their conference. … Just three months after Democrats once again governed from the minority and staved off the worst of Republicans’ chaos and cuts, the GOP is back with another set of extreme, unworkable bills,” they wrote.
Republicans
proposed Tuesday reducing the IRS enforcement budget by $2 billion and funding the agency to the tune of $10.1 billion for fiscal 2025, which would be $2.2 billion below 2024 levels.
Ways and Means Democrats described the cuts as “drastic.”
House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Tuesday that the bill “protects taxpayers and constrains the burdensome hands of unelected bureaucrats.”
Top Democratic appropriator Steny Hoyer (Md.) voiced dismay about IRS funding at the FSGG markup Wednesday.
“We need to meet President Biden’s request to fund the IRS at the fiscal year ‘24 levels. Ideally, we provide additional funding beyond the request to offset the recent rescissions to the agency,” he said.