House to Vote on Bill Aimed at Slashing $72 Billion From IRS

The House is set to vote on a bill Monday night that would slash billions from the IRS, fulfilling newly elected GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy's pledge to cut the agency's funding in an effort to prevent audits on Americans.

Introduced by Reps. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Michelle Steel, R-Calif., the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act would claw back $72 billion in funding for the IRS that was approved by Congress last year in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Smith-Steel bill leaves funding in place for customer service and IT improvements at the agency but cuts several categories of unobligated funding, including money that could be used for new audits on Americans.

More than half of the $80 billion set aside for the IRS over a 10-year period was aimed at cracking down on tax evasion, with the Treasury Department estimating that the funding could be used to hire 87,000 new auditors and other personnel. Republicans vowed to fight the robust expansion of the agency that would more than double its size.

"The last thing the American people need right now are more audits from an out-of-control, bloated IRS," Smith told Fox News Digital on Monday. "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."

Smith said it was "unacceptable."

"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," Smith said.

The vote on Monday follows a week-long 15-round struggle to elect a House speaker, culminating in McCarthy's election to the post.

In his acceptance speech, McCarthy said repealing the "funding for 87,000 new IRS agents" will be "our first bill" amid a recent report finding a significantly higher audit rate for lower-income taxpayers than for millionaires.

The House is also slated to vote on the new rules package on Monday, which will set the parameters for the 118th Congress.

The package includes several measures designed to make it more difficult for Congress to spend money, mandates 72 hours' notice before voting on new legislation, requires a three-fifths supermajority to pass federal income tax rate increases and creates a task force to tackle House ethics reform.