House Republicans offer amendments to restrict IRS powers

House Republicans have submitted a number of amendments to a spending bill that would place restrictions on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its top officials.

The amendments were offered to the financial services and general government appropriations bill, which provides funding for the IRS, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies. Amendments were due to the House Rules Committee by noon on Monday.

{mosads}The bill as approved by the House Appropriations Committee would reduce IRS funding by $236 million. It also includes several restrictions on IRS funds, including a ban on the agency using funds to target groups for their political beliefs.

The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider which amendments will receive a vote on the floor. The House is expected to vote on amendments and the bill later this week.

Several amendments were offered to eliminate or reduce the salary of the IRS commissioner. They come as some House Republicans are pushing for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to be impeached.

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to reduce the commissioner’s salary to zero. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) offered two amendments to cut the salary of the commissioner through the date of the next presidential inauguration, one of which would lower it to zero during that time period. Koskinen’s term ends in November 2017.

Other amendments focused on IRS user fees that it can spend without congressional appropriations.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) proposed that the IRS user fees can only be used for taxpayer services. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) proposed preventing the agency from spending the user fee revenues without appropriations. A standalone bill authored by Smith on this topic passed the House in April, and President Obama has threatened to veto it.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) offered several amendments that would ban IRS employees from using funds to buy or use a firearm for tax-enforcement purposes, reduce the IRS enforcement account by $100 million and prevent funds from being used to pay senior IRS employees bonuses.

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) proposed that the IRS be banned from using funds to hire outside firms to conduct audits involving confidential taxpayer information.

The chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), filed several IRS oversight amendments after the deadline. One of these amendments, to ban IRS funds from being used to require tax-exempt organizations to disclose donor information on annual returns, is similar to a bill the House passed last week.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) offered amendments to defund the collection of estate taxes as well as to defund the collection of all current taxes and only allow a sales tax to replace them. He also filed amendments after the deadline to defund tax credits or refunds without a valid Social Security number and to defund the capital gains tax.

Democrats also offered their own IRS-related amendments to the bill.

An amendment from Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a senior Democrat on Ways and Means, would bar the IRS from using private debt collectors. The agency’s use of such collectors is required under a transportation bill enacted last year.

A group of House Democrats, including Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (Calif.) and Ways and Means Ranking Member Sandy Levin (Mich.) proposed striking language in the bill that prohibits the IRS from issuing guidance on political activity for 501(c)(4) organizations.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who is running for Senate, offered an amendment to provide a 50 percent increase to the minimum funding level for the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) offered an amendment after the deadline to increase funding for the program by $1.5 million.

Other IRS-related amendments were bipartisan.

One such amendment, offered by Reps. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) and Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), would ban the IRS and the Treasury Department from using funds to require nonprofits to provide the Social Security numbers of donors for the purpose of substantiating contributions.

This amendment comes after the IRS in January withdrew a proposed rule that would have encouraged charities to collect the Social Security numbers of donors. Nonprofits had told the IRS that the proposal would have discouraged donations and made their organizations a target for cyber criminals.

Another bipartisan amendment, from Roskam and Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), would prevent the IRS from using funds to seize property based on structuring allegations unless the money came from illegal sources or was connected to nonstructuring criminal activity. This amendment, which was offered late, is similar to legislation the lawmakers introduced last week.