The White House and Congress seem to view IRS funding as a bargaining chip rather than a golden ticket.
Washington, D.C.– Executive Director Chad Hooper of the Professional Managers Association (PMA)–formed in1981 by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Managers as a national membership association representing the interests of professional managers, management officials and non-bargaining unit employees in the federal government and within the IRS–released the following statement regarding Congress’s decision to cut $20 billion in funding from the IRS modernization initiatives to fund a debt ceiling agreement:
“Congress and the White House’s decision to cut $20 billion in funding from the IRS modernization initiatives is extremely short sighted. While we understand the urgent need to address our nation’s debt crises, it is Congress’s own negligence that has caused this fiscal state. Congress consistently fails to fund the government on time–resulting in billions of dollars of waste for federal agencies. Congress also fails to fund modernization initiatives that would save taxpayer funds in the long term. For example, the Government Accountability Office has estimated that agencies spend $337 million annually to operate and maintain legacy IT systems. Rather than cut down on actual waste, the White House and Congress have cut a deal to cut funding from the federal government’s single greatest revenue source: the IRS,” Hooper began.
“This tax season has been the IRS’s most successful in recent years. Wait times are down. Service levels are up. And return processing is only getting faster. Why? Because it had the funding to hire and train the staff to service the American taxpayer. This season was a small testament to what the IRS can achieve with the resources to do its job,” Hooper continued. “The IRS’s 10-year strategic operating plan only builds upon those successes by outlining a plan for the modernizing the IRS, its technology, and the way it interacts with the public.”
“The IRS–particularly in its transformed state–can be a solution to our nation’s fiscal crisis. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated increasing IRS funding by $80 billion over the2022–2031 period would increase revenues by approximately $200 billion over those 10 years. No other federal agency can boast such a significant return on investment. And yet, the White House and Congress seem to view IRS funding as a bargaining chip rather than a golden ticket. Ultimately, our nation’s fiscal health will continue to worsen if Congress does not do the hard, necessary work to modernize government operations so to eliminate waste and recover revenue. Congress cannot keep waiting until the last minute to enact quick half-fixes. Slashing IRS modernization funds may seem like an easy answer today, but the American people will pay for it tomorrow,” Hooper concluded.
