Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) raised concerns about the IRS’s fiscal year 2015 budget request on Monday and called on the agency to undertake leaner, more accountable budgeting.
Crenshaw, the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, questioned IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on the agency’s budget request during a subcommittee hearing.
“Similar to the IRS’s 2012, 2013 and 2014 budget requests, the administration is seeking discretionary spending for the IRS well above the spending caps by relying on a discretionary cap adjustment that is not in current law,” Crenshaw said. “Absent a change to either the Budget Control Act or the Ryan-Murray agreement, $480 million of the IRS’s request is both pointless and meaningless. If the $480 million is of importance to the administration, then the president would have found a way to pay for it from the $1.014 trillion allowable under Ryan-Murray rather than use a gimmick that the budget committees have rejected for four consecutive years.”
Crenshaw said the IRS “has no business” seeking a 10 percent budget increase, which would amount to approximately $1.2 billion.
“Asking for more money for bigger salaries and an elimination of existing language that expressly prohibits targeting of citizens carrying out their First Amendment rights only reinforces a sense of anger and mistrust with this agency,” Crenshaw said. “Americans deserve accountability.”