GOP proposes bill to redirect new IRS funds to Border Patrol

by Jacob Fuller

Curt Flewelling – FISM News

 

New York Representative Claudia Tenney introduced legislation on Wednesday that would redirect funds allocated to the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act, and use them to help increase border security.

The bill reads: “To rescind certain balances made available to the Internal Revenue Service and redirect them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This Act may be cited as the ‘Diverting IRS Resources to the Exigent Crisis Through Funds for Border Security Act.'”

These finances are proposed to be taken from the controversial $80 billion earmarked for the IRS to allow the agency to hire 87,000 new agents. While Democrats claim that these new hires will help the department collect more federal revenue, mostly from corporations and the wealthiest Americans, Republicans like Rep. Tenney don’t see it that way.

“The Biden administration’s failure to secure the border and enforce our immigration laws has created an unmitigated disaster at our Southern Border that is impacting communities across the country. Meanwhile, President Biden and Democrats in Congress are ignoring the problem and instead giving tens of billions of dollars to the IRS so they can audit an additional 700,000 working-class Americans,” Tenney told the Daily Caller.

If the bill passes — an incredibly unlikely scenario in the currently Democrat-controlled Congress — the unobligated dollars previously designated to the IRS would be used to fund the salaries and expenses of new patrol agents providing security on the southern border of the United States.

The bill is largely a symbolic gesture. However, proposed legislation such as this does likely have political value regardless of its fate.

The GOP recently unveiled their “Commitment to America,” a conservative manifesto that is broken down into four pillars: an economy that is strong, a government that is accountable, a future that is built on freedom, and a nation that is safe.

Republicans assert that the last platitude will be directly impacted by their proposal to strengthen the southern border and curb illegal immigration. The GOP is banking on the notion that a secure border will make all Americans safer.

The gesture, whether feigned or sincere, is likely to resonate with voters in the upcoming midterm elections.

According to a recent Pew Research poll, 73% of Americans say that increasing security along the US-Mexico border to reduce illegal crossings is an important goal. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 91% agree on the importance of border security. And even a healthy number of Democrat respondents (59%) agree with that premise.

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