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Washington D.C.  – The federal government’s ability to provide essential taxpayer services would be dramatically weakened by legislation coming up for a House vote and opposed by the National Treasury Employees Union. 
  
The so-called Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 would unnecessarily hamstring federal agencies with indiscriminate cuts to their budgets and staffing, jeopardizing their missions related to public health, law enforcement and economic growth. The IRS, especially, would lose most of the new funding it received last year that is just beginning to rebuild and modernize the agency. 
  
“Deep, arbitrary across-the-board spending cuts are from an old, failed playbook: Weaken federal agencies then feign outrage when the hollowed-out agencies cannot meet their missions of serving Americans,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon. “You can’t inspect more drug manufacturing facilities with fewer FDA inspectors. You can’t screen more international cargo for illicit drugs with fewer CBP officers. You can’t process more tax returns and send out refunds quickly with fewer IRS employees. Yet, that’s what sponsors of this legislation would have you believe.” 
  
The legislation would raise the nation’s debt ceiling in exchange for harmful, long-term spending cuts.  
  
“This bill is an attempt to steamroll the American people into thinking that these two issues are intertwined. They are not. NTEU strongly encourages Congress to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and avoid a catastrophic default, then get to work on setting appropriations that give federal agencies the resources they need to serve the public,” Reardon said. 
  
It was only a few short years ago when the Republican majority embarked on a multi-year plan to gut the IRS budget, resulting in low levels of customer service, massive backlogs and outdated technology. The Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 would do the same to almost every federal agency in government, which is why NTEU is urging lawmakers to vote against the bill. 
  
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that rescinding the IRS funding would increase the federal deficit by almost $120 billion.