The People’s House is off to a wonderful start. Speaker McCarthy promised, and Representatives Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Michelle Steel (R-CA) have introduced the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act. This bill rolls back the bulk of the IRS funding provided in Section 10301 of Public Law 117-169, commonly known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. It is nice to see representatives of the left coast and the fly-over country working together on an issue so important to all Americans.

This short two-page bill leaves intact only two sections of the previous legislation. Section (1)(A)(i) provides a little more than $3 billion over 10 years for taxpayer assistance, education, filing and account services, and advocacy. Section (1)(A)(iii) provides a little less than $5 billion over 10 years to modernize the Internal Revenue Service’s business systems to provide better customer service.

Image: Taxes by DonkeyHotey. CC BY 2.0.

Gone is $71 billion in enforcement and operations, including funding for those 87,000 proposed new agents. There are sufficient enforcement agent positions to go after the billionaires and millionaires the Biden Administration has been so exercised over. This makes me happy, having addressed these issues earlier here and here. It should make most American happy.

As Representative Smith says,

The last thing the American people need right now are more audits from an out-of-control, bloated IRS. The Inflation Act funding for IRS would lead to the hiring of 87,000 new IRS employees tasked with raising enough revenue to pay for Democrats’ Green New Deal priorities. This is unacceptable, which is why Rep. Steel and I are leading the House of Representatives in a bill to rescind this spending. Our bill leaves in place funding for customer service and IT improvements because IRS is in desperate need of reform, but it protects middle-class families from audits they cannot afford.

By now, senators understand the attitude of their constituents. Less than half of Democrats, and far fewer Republicans, according to a Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll, believe that the purpose of all that new funding for those new positions was to audit the wealthy. Vote this through and reduce the budget bloat by at least a small burp.

Congratulations to the 118th for a first step in the right direction. Keep up the good work.

Anony Mee is the nom de blog of a retired public servant.