House Republicans made good on a campaign promise yesterday, passing a bill that would zero out most of the $80 billion in new IRS funding in the $1.7 trillion Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August.
As he promised for months, the newly-elected House speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), made it the first bill introduced under his leadership this year.
The bill, the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, was approved by the House on a party-line vote, 223 to 210.
The bill would repeal $72 billion appropriated to the IRS, but preserve the roughly $3.18 billion earmarked for the improvement of IRS taxpayer services and roughly $4.75 billion for “business systems modernization,” its sponsor newly-minted Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in a letter to House members on Friday.
Specially, the legislation would repeal the $45.6 billion earmarked for increased enforcement activities to increase revenue from taxpayer audits.
It would also repeal the $23.3 billion earmarked IRS enforcement programs, new agent office rent and the purchase of new cars for agents.
The bill would further peel back $15 million from a new project—the development of a pilot tax return preparation program that Republicans argue would make the IRS responsible for tax prep and contested returns, which they argue is a conflict of interest for the agency.
All told, the legislation would eliminate about $71 billion of the total $80 billion in IRS funding, but according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would reduce tax revenue by about $186 billion, translating to a $114 billion increase in deficits over the next decade, The Hill reported.
The bill faces long odds, given the Democratic-led Senate and President Joe Biden, who has veto power, pundits say.