[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 91 (Tuesday, May 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3389-S3390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
H.R. 1
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, H.R. 1, the Democrats' supposed election
integrity bill, is filled with bad ideas: making the Federal Election
Commission into a partisan body; effectively banning voter ID and
gutting other safeguards against voter fraud; providing for taxpayer
funding of political campaigns.
Nowhere is that more true than when it comes to the bill's truly
terrible provisions on the IRS.
Everyone remembers the IRS scandal during the Obama administration.
Around 2013, it emerged that the Obama IRS had been unfairly singling
out conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status, slow-
walking their applications and subjecting them to burdensome extra
scrutiny. This had been going on for more than 2 years, and top IRS
officials compounded the Agency's misdeeds by providing misleading
information to Congress.
Well, Americans should brace themselves, because if H.R. 1 is ever
enacted, it would allow for the same kind of targeting that went on
under the Obama administration, if not worse. To start with, H.R. 1
repeals a Treasury Department rule finalized last year that was
designed to help prevent the kind of abuse that went on under the Obama
IRS.
Under the rule, many tax-exempt organizations are no longer required
to turn over to the IRS the names and addresses of individuals who have
made substantial donations. This is not information the IRS needs to
know for tax purposes, and there is no reason the Agency should have
information beyond what it needs to do its job.
I am proud to be a cosponsor of Leader McConnell and Senator Braun's
bill which would permanently codify the Treasury rule and its
protections against unnecessary disclosure. Providing the IRS with
additional extraneous information opens up opportunities for the kind
of abuses we saw during the Obama administration.
But stopping IRS abuse doesn't seem to be a big priority for the
Democrat Party. Indeed, there is reason to believe at least some
Democrats would like the IRS to take a more aggressive role in
Americans' lives. And so H.R. 1 explicitly repeals the Treasury
Department rule, but that is not all.
As if Democrats were determined to prove that they intend to
weaponize the IRS, H.R. 1 and S. 1, which is the Senate version of the
House bill, would allow the IRS to consider organizations' views when
deciding whether or not to grant them tax-exempt status. Let me repeat
that. H.R. 1 and S. 1 would allow the IRS to consider an organization's
views when deciding whether or not to grant that organization tax-
exempt status.
It is difficult to think of a more outrageous and dangerous
provision. This rule would allow any administration of either party to
use the IRS to censor and suppress groups whose ideas the party in
power opposes. If the administration in power doesn't like the
positions that your organization champions, say goodbye to your hopes
for tax-exempt status. The Obama IRS scandals could look tame compared
to the kind of political weaponization of the IRS that could occur
under H.R. 1.
This provision could have real political implications. Selectively
granting tax-exempt status could be a means of weakening political
opposition. A group that can't get tax-exempt status may be a group
that never gets off the ground for financial reasons and, thus, a group
that never becomes a significant voice in opposition to policies of the
reigning party.
Do you think this is a worst case scenario? Well, let's remember that
something like this already happened under the Obama administration.
The IRS was weaponized once, and it can be weaponized again, especially
if Democrats succeed in their efforts to eliminate safeguards against
such abuse.
And, of course, if the President has his way, the IRS may soon be
swimming in money that would substantially increase its reach.
President Biden wants to provide the IRS with--get this--an additional
$80 billion over 10 years. That would give the IRS a larger budget than
the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, the Department of
the Interior, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other
significant government Agencies. It would allow the IRS to hire nearly
87,000 new employees--87,000. All told, the Biden plan would double the
number of IRS employees over the next decade.
Now, the reason President Biden gives for this massive increase in
IRS funding is increased enforcement efforts in order to close the tax
gap--that gap that exists between taxes owed and what Americans end up
actually paying. But there is little reason to believe that the IRS
will come anywhere close to recovering the amount of money the
President claims it can recover, even with a massive infusion of cash.
And there is reason to be seriously concerned about what that massive
infusion of cash, plus new reporting requirements on Americans' bank
and Venmo accounts, could mean for IRS intrusion into Americans' lives.
President Biden, of course, also claims that any increased
enforcement will be targeted against wealthy Americans. In what is
becoming a typical Democrat class-warfare rhetoric, the President
states that ordinary Americans pay their taxes while some wealthy
Americans dodge them. Of course, according to the IRS, our Nation has a
relatively high and stable voluntary tax compliance rate, and tax
compliance levels remain largely unchanged since at least the 1980s.
And, in fact, failure to pay tax owed occurs among all kinds of
taxpayers in every place along the income spectrum. But the White House
isn't letting those facts interfere with its class-warfare rhetoric.
What is more, what guarantees will we have other than Democrats' say-
so at this point that this infusion of money will be restricted to
combating
[[Page S3390]]
tax evasion? As far as I can tell, there is nothing to prevent the new
agents the IRS will hire from being retasked at some point to other
priorities, like investigating the views of conservative organizations
before deciding whether or not to grant them tax-exempt status.
Closing the tax gap is a serious goal that deserves serious
discussion, and it is possible that a targeted IRS funding increase for
that purpose would be worth considering. But $80 billion is a
ridiculous number. In the words of one of President Obama's IRS chiefs:
``I'm not sure you'd be able to efficiently use that much money.''
And any plus-up in funding for the IRS should be accompanied by
serious reforms, as well as many protections--not fewer protections--
against IRS politicization.
While the Obama IRS scandal represents one of the more egregious
abuses of the Agency's power, the IRS is well known for serial
mismanagement, like Americans' inability to actually get through to the
IRS with their questions
The Washington Post reported in April that if you were calling the
IRS this tax season, you had a 1-in-50--1-in-50--chance of actually
getting to speak to a human being.
In May, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
released a report on the 2021 filing season, which noted the IRS
struggled to get new hires squared away on the job partially because it
is--and here, I am going to have to quote from this report--``difficult
to find working copiers . . . to be able to prepare training packages
for new hires.'' That is right. And I wish those were the only Agency
printer or copier problems, but they are not.
Let me quote from the inspector general's report again.
Audit teams continue to perform onsite walkthroughs at the
Ogden, Utah, and Kansas City, Missouri, Tax Processing
Centers to meet with staff to discuss challenges they are
facing as it relates to addressing the ongoing backlogs of
inventory. A major concern that surfaced during these
walkthroughs was a lack of working printers and copiers. IRS
management estimated that, as of March 30, 2021, 69 [or] (42
percent) of 164 devices used by the Submission Processing
functions are unusable and others are broken but still
functioning. IRS employees stated that the only reason they
could not use many of these devices is because they are out
of ink or because the waste cartridge container is full.
That is from the inspector general's report. I wish this were a joke,
but that is straight out of the IG's report.
Hearing that, you might think that we don't need to worry about the
weaponization of the IRS because the Agency isn't capable of work that
sophisticated. But, as we know, that isn't true. The IRS was
successfully weaponized for political purposes during the Obama
administration, and the same thing could happen again, especially if
Democrats succeed in removing protections against IRS abuse.
As our Nation's revenue-collecting Agency, the IRS is an Agency with
immense power, and it is not a voluntary government program. Americans
don't get to choose whether or not they interact with the IRS. For that
reason, it is vital that there be as many safeguards in place as
possible to prevent the IRS from abusing its power or being used for
political purposes.
We have seen plenty of evidence that the IRS often doesn't use the
money or resources that it currently has in a responsible way. And any
increase in money for the IRS--which it certainly should not be
anywhere close to $80 billion--should be matched with significant
reforms and increased accountability.
And H.R. 1, with its multitude of unwise and unconstitutional
provisions even beyond the alarming provisions I have discussed today,
must be stopped. Otherwise, the Biden legacy may be the weaponization
of the IRS.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). The Senator from New Jersey.