Serrano statement at hearing on Internal Revenue Service budget request

February 11, 2016
Press Release

Thank you Mr. Chairman.  This is our first subcommittee hearing of the year, and I look forward to working with you once again.  We have a number of important hearings planned, including with some folks who our friends on the Budget Committee don’t feel like meeting with, so I look forward to moving forward with our process.

Today, I would also like to welcome Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen back before the subcommittee.  He took over the helm of the Internal Revenue Service during a very tumultuous time in agency’s history, and I believe he has done a strong job of righting the ship and making sure that the employees there are focused on their mission.

That said, there is only so much the Commissioner can do without sufficient resources, and that is where this subcommittee comes in.  While we were able to increase funding for the IRS by $290 million above the fiscal year 2015 level, compared to the deep cuts suffered by the agency in previous years, this increase is insufficient. 

Last year, numerous nonpartisan reports, from the Taxpayer Advocate to the Treasury Inspector General for Taxpayer Administration to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, noted the negative impact that budget cuts have had on taxpayer  services and dollars collected.  The omnibus’s funding increase was a down payment on the necessary investments needed for the IRS to succeed, and I believe that more investment is needed to help reverse these declines.

That is why I support the fiscal year 2017 budget request proposed by the President.  It includes a significant increase over last year’s level, and is spread across several initiatives, from improving taxpayer service to the continued implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  Much of this increase is devoted to the core mission of the agency- helping ensure that Americans can file their taxes in a timely and accurate manner, and ensuring those who attempt to cheat the federal government are caught and punished. 

In my view, much of this increase should be acceptable to both sides of the aisle. Last year, we reached consensus that the IRS needed further investment in order to collect the revenue owed to our country and to ensure that everyone plays by the same rules.  I hope we follow the same bipartisan spirit this year. 

Before I conclude, I do want to express my concern over language that was added to the Surface Transportation bill (the FAST Act) last year requiring the IRS to use private debt collection agencies.  We have seen in the past that this is a waste of taxpayer money, and that requiring private entities to take on an essential governmental function leads to confusion and abuse.  I strongly opposed these efforts in the past, and it is my expectation that no private debt collection program should take place without sufficient safeguards in place- and if those safeguards cannot be found, then I expect the program will not move forward. I hope you will be able to discuss this issue in more detail today.

Commissioner Koskinen, welcome back, and I look forward to your testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

114th Congress