House Republican introduces bill to redirect funds employing IRS auditors to instead hire more border agents
FIRST ON FOX – Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., is introducing a bill that aims to redirect funding from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to fund the hiring of more Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill, titled the "Diverting IRS Resources to the Exigent Crisis Today Act" or the "DIRECT Act," aims to "rescind certain balances made available to the Internal Revenue Service and redirect them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection."
Specifically, the proposal seeks to have "unobligated balances" appropriated or otherwise made available to the IRS for "enforcement activities" under federal law instead go to the CBP "for the salaries and expenses of new agents and officers hired for the security of the southern border of the United States," according to the bill's language. Tenney is reintroducing the 2023 bill to the newly sworn-in 119th Congress.
"The Biden-Harris administration has overseen the entry of over 10 million illegal immigrants into our country," Tenney said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Yet, instead of prioritizing border security and supporting CBP agents, they focused on sending the IRS to harass middle-class families. The DIRECT Act stops Biden's IRS army from launching audits of middle-class families and reinvests those funds to hiring additional Customs and Border Protection agents to secure the Southern Border."
The congresswoman added: "As we transition to the new administration, it is vital to provide CBP agents with the additional resources needed to secure our borders and deport illegal immigrants, ensuring they can effectively support President Trump's and Border Czar Homan's agenda."
Congress passed Biden's Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 without any support from Republicans. The package allocated about $80 billion to the IRS, green-lighting the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents by 2035, including enforcement agents.
That stipulation became a flash-point issue for Republicans, including Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who accused the Biden IRS of trying to "harass hard-working Americans."
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to spearhead the newly developed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The nongovernmental task force will be responsible for finding ways to slash the federal workforce, and ax programs and federal regulations, as part of Trump's "Save America" agenda for a second term.
Trump announced on Wednesday he would establish another new agency, the External Revenue Service, to collect tariffs and other funding owed to the U.S. by foreign entities.
Incoming border czar Tom Homan, who like Tenney is a native New Yorker, is tasked with delivering on Trump's promise of mass deportations of criminal illegal immigrants and drug traffickers.
Tenney, who co-chaired the House Election Integrity Caucus amid the 2024 race that ended in Trump's victory, also recently re-introduced a bill that aims to rip federal funds from states that allow illegal immigrants to hold driver's licenses.