U.S. Senators Drop Tax Enforcement on Biparty Infrastructure Bill

U.S. lawmakers trying to save a bipartisan $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill have dropped a provision to strengthen tax enforcement, Republican Senator Rob Portman said on Sunday, setting aside an important measure revenue collection.

The provision, aimed at increasing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collections, will likely be added to a separate budget “reconciliation” bill proposed by Democrats as a way to spend billions more in spending and in tax increases, Portman told CNN’s State of the Union Program.

President Joe Biden has said he wants to invest $ 80 billion in IRS technology and enforcement to increase tax collection by $ 700 billion over 10 years. The provision outlined in the infrastructure bill would represent about $ 100 billion of that larger goal, according to Democratic senators’ estimates.

The decision to exclude the IRS provision from the $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill comes as Senators and the White House attempt to negotiate the final details of the package ahead of a key procedural vote scheduled for Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants to hold a “closing” vote to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate and allow the infrastructure bill to proceed. final vote.

“In terms of IRS reform or the IRS tax gap, which was originally in the proposal, that will no longer be in our proposal. It will be in the larger reconciliation bill that we are told, “said Portman, who is among the senators working to negotiate the legislation.

Portman said there had been a Republican “pushback” against the IRS proposal after the party learned Democrats also planned to add a larger IRS enforcement proposal to the draft. separate law on reconciliation expenditure. Democrats are hoping to pass the reconciliation bill without the backing of Republicans under budget rules that allow them to proceed with a simple simple majority, which would require them to use the decisive vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“It created quite a problem,” Portman said, as Republicans believed they agreed with Democrats on the extent of the IRS’s application in the infrastructure bill.

“And President Biden, to his credit, has said that we will not renegotiate these items in the reconciliation package.”

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who is also a negotiator for the infrastructure bill, said it was not clear whether they would be able to conduct Wednesday’s procedural vote.

He told Fox News on Sunday that the deal could run alongside the Democrats’ larger reconciliation bill if the right revenue measures to pay for it can be found.

Wednesday’s vote would require 60 votes in the Senate to continue, meaning it would need the support of at least 10 Republicans, assuming all Democrats back it.

“How can I vote for closure when the bill is not written?” said Cassidy. “Unless Senator Schumer doesn’t want this to happen, you need a little more time to get it right.”

Schumer, speaking to reporters in New York on Sunday, said there was “no reason” the bipartisan group negotiating the infrastructure package could not reach an agreement by Wednesday.