Congresswoman Tenney Introduces Legislation Redirecting New IRS Funding for Middle-Class Audits to Border Patrol

Press Release

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22) today introduced the Diverting IRS Resources to the Exigent Crisis Through (DIRECT) Funds for Border Security Act. The legislation stops Biden's new IRS army from launching audits of middle-class families and instead invests those funds in additional Customs and Border Protection Agents to secure the Southern Border. Representatives Lance Gooden (TX-05), Randy Weber (TX-14), Dan Crenshaw (TX-02), Pete Stauber (MN-08), Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Buddy Carter (GA-01), Jay Obernolte (CA-08), Markwayne Mullin (OK-02), Steve Chabot (OH-01), Gregory Steube (FL-17), and Chris Jacobs (NY-27) all joined the legislation as original cosponsors.

As part of the partisan Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS received $45.6 billion for additional enforcement activities. These additional audits will primarily target lower- and middle-income Americans, contrary to President Biden's claims. The bill also failed to invest enough in the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which is what could improve the responsiveness and delivery of services to American taxpayers. As Biden is focused on targeting law-abiding American families to pay for his costly new legislation, he has ignored the crisis on our Southern Border. Already in FY22 there have been over 2.1 million border encounters, the highest fiscal year total ever, with one month's worth of data still yet to be reported. In less than two years, the Biden administration has already surpassed the total number of encounters from the entirety of the Obama administration.

"The Biden administration's failure to secure the border and enforce our immigration laws has created an unmitigated disaster at our Southern Border that is impacting communities across the country," said Congresswoman Tenney. "Meanwhile, President Biden and Democrats in Congress are ignoring the problem and instead giving tens of billions of dollars to the IRS, not to improve its services but so they can audit an additional 700,000 working-class Americans. Joe Biden's priorities could not be more twisted. Americans don't want more IRS audits; they want a secure border and safer streets. The DIRECT Funds for Border Security Act will deliver just that by providing CBP with the money needed to hire new agents."

Specifically, the DIRECT Funds for Border Security Act would rescind all of the unobligated funds under the partisan Inflation Reduction Act for new IRS enforcement activities and reappropriate these funds for CBP to hire additional agents to secure the Southern Border.

Source