Political Quotes

“Madam President, earlier this summer, my Democratic colleagues got through on reconciliation--a strictly partisan way--a bill that provided that the IRS would get $80 billion in mandatory funding, which was meant to double the size of the IRS by 87,000 employees. This additional $80 billion, which comes on top of its annual appropriation, is over six times more than it received through annual appropriations in 2022. Now, I expect, in the new Congress, starting January 3 next year, there is going to be an attempt to reduce the $80 billion and not go for the 87,000 additional employees. I favor doing just that. However, in the meantime, the $80 billion and the 87,000 employees is law, and so this unprecedented increase in funding demands that Congress have a comparable increase in congressional oversight of the IRS--exacting and unyielding oversight, to be precise. After all, we are talking about 87,000 new employees. To begin this oversight, Finance Committee Republicans, including this Senator, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office in October in pursuit of this oversight. In that letter, we asked for information on outstanding issues that the Government Accountability Office has identified at the Internal Revenue Service and the status of recommendations the IRS has failed to implement. The Government Accountability Office responded to that letter at the end of November, and, as you might quite expect, there are many ongoing and persistent issues.…”