One of the most egregious parts of the Democrat’s “Inflation Reduction Act” was to give the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) $80 billion in new funding to hire an army of agents to snoop into your bank accounts. In order to fight back against this radical spending and big-government overreach, I introduced the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act in October 2021 to block it altogether. My Republican colleagues and I understand that — despite what the Democrats say — this scheme will not help catch the wealthiest Americans who are evading their taxes. But it will discourage hardworking individuals from participating in our financial system, disproportionately harming low-income Americans living paycheck to paycheck.
The Democrats’ snooping scheme includes hiring nearly 87,000 IRS agents — all to let them spy on your bank accounts to try to raise more revenue for their tax-and-spend spree. To put that number into context, that’s enough new IRS agents to fill the Atlanta Braves stadium — twice! Like I’ve stated many times though, it doesn’t matter whether the amount is $1, $600, $10,000, or $1 million, allowing the IRS to conduct this kind of radical surveillance is unacceptable and is a direct violation of our Constitutional rights.
Last week, I joined Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) in writing a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen requesting the Department of Treasury make clear how they intend to spend the $80 billion that Democrats handed to the IRS. We are concerned that the administration and Congressional Democrats will renew their efforts to surveil the bank accounts of our citizens and we remain strongly opposed to any effort to impose a bank surveillance scheme on Americans. It is important for the American people to know where this administration stands on this issue.
Click here to read the full letter.
