Republicans plan to vote as soon as Monday on one of their priorities now that they hold a narrow majority in the House — rescinding the extra $80 billion provided for the Internal Revenue Service under the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats passed last year — after picking a new leader of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
A group of GOP members reintroduced the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act on Monday, fresh off a contentious series of 15 votes to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California as Speaker of the House early Saturday morning. The bill was originally introduced last October by Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Nebraska, and Michelle Steel, R-California, as a way to repeal all IRS enforcement funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. It was reintroduced by them Monday along with Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa.
Democrats have contended the extra $80 billion allocated to the IRS over the next 10 years will be used for improving taxpayer service, updating the IRS's aging technology systems, hiring more employees as well as increasing tax enforcement and audits of the wealthy and large corporations, but Republicans have warned the funds will be used to hire tens of thousands of IRS agents to audit middle-class taxpayers and smaller businesses.
"I know the night is late, but when we come back our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents," McCarthy said after winning the House Speaker position. "You see, we believe government should be to help you, not go after you."
While a vote on the bill could come as early as Monday, after struggles last week to elect a speaker, it's unclear all Republicans will agree to pass the rules package for this congressional term after McCarthy was forced to make concessions to win support from enough members on the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Even if the bill is passed, it would still face a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate, which is unlikely to pass it, and it would likely face a veto from President Biden, who made passage of the Inflation Reduction Act a priority last summer. A vote on the rules package is expected later Monday.
New Ways and Means Committee chair
On Monday afternoon, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri, was chosen as leader of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, which would likely vote on the bill before it advances to a vote among the larger set of House members. Two other lawmakers — Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida, and Adrian Smith, R-Nebraska, who co-sponsored the IRS bill — had been vying with him for that spot.
"It is deeply humbling and an honor to be selected by my colleagues to serve as the next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee," Jason Smith said in a statement. "With our new House Republican majority, we have made a commitment to the American people to build a stronger economy that gives everyone — not just the wealthy and politically-connected — greater opportunity to build a more prosperous future for themselves and their families. Americans also expect us to hold the Biden administration accountable for the crises it has caused and to once again exercise Congress's oversight authority which has been entirely absent under one-party Democrat rule in Washington. Republicans will meet these challenges and more, head-on, every day of this Congress."
Like the McCarthy vote, this one too went to multiple ballots, but not as many. Adrian Smith dropped out after losing the first ballot, and Buchanan lost to Jason Smith on the second ballot, according to
"This is a big loss for Florida which hasn't had a committee chairman in five years despite being the fastest growing state with the second largest Republican delegation in the House," Buchanan said in a statement. "Florida deserves a seat at the leadership table."
The former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, issued a statement Monday afternoon congratulating Jason Smith on his new post.
"Leading the Ways and Means Committee is an awesome responsibility, and I congratulate Jason on his selection as the new chairman," Neal said in a statement. "We have worked together for years on some of the most consequential issues, and I look forward to continuing the committee's tradition of rising above politics to do what's best for the American people."
Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, who still chairs the Senate's main tax committee, pointed to findings released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office, which found that rescinding funding for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act would add more than $114 billion to the deficit and reduce revenues by nearly $186 billion. He indicated that the GOP bill would not go far in the Senate.
"The CBO has confirmed what was obvious from the start — the Republican IRS bill, a handout to wealthy tax cheats, would add $114 billion to the deficit," Wyden said in a statement. "It's clear that all the Republican talk about the deficits and debt is little more than an excuse to demand cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the other federal programs that lift up working Americans and sustain the middle class. It's the same old Republican playbook we've seen many times before — goodies for the top paid for by everybody else. Senate Democrats will not entertain it."
An advocacy group, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released its own
"The House is likely to vote today on a
The new chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, released his own statement on the bill and Republicans' priorities when it came to the Tax Code.
"Our first step is defunding the $80 billion pay increase Democrats gave the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents to target working families," Jason Smith said in a statement. "But we are not stopping there. If confirmed, the new IRS commissioner should plan to spend a lot of time before our committee answering questions about the leaking of sensitive taxpayer information and an agency with a history of targeting conservative Americans. We will make it clear to every IRS employee that the Ways and Means Committee welcomes whistleblower efforts to uncover corrupt behavior at that agency.
"Ways and Means Republicans will build an economy that is strong by prioritizing our most valuable economic resource, the American worker," he added. "We will build on the success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and examine how our policies can reward working families with a tax code that delivers better jobs, higher wages, and more investment in America. We must also examine whether it is in the best interests of the American people to continue showering tax benefits on corporations that have shed their American identity in favor of a relationship with China. We will examine using both trade policy and our tax code to re-shore and strengthen our supply chains, where products and services vital to our national security are made here at home using American labor, as well as craft policies that help America achieve food and medical security rather than dependence on nations like China. We must also look at ways to encourage domestic energy production and achieve energy independence through the tax code instead of using it as a tool to punish energy producers as President Biden has suggested.
"Domestically, we cannot expect our labor force to recover if Congress makes work less valuable than a government check, as Democrats did when they dismantled the Child Tax Credit in 2021," Smith added. "We must provide an on-ramp for able-bodied adults to transition into the workforce, and we must also take seriously our responsibility to create the economic conditions that allow them to thrive upon reentry. The American people can rest assured that help is on the way. It's time to get to work."
