SEC Would Get $74M Funding Boost Under Senate Bill
Under the financial services bill, the IRS would get a more than $1.6 billion boost to go after wealthy tax cheats.
A Senate Appropriations Committee bill released Monday would provide the Securities and Exchange Commission with $1.999 billion in 2022 — a $74 million boost from the fiscal year 2021 enacted level and the same as President Joe Biden’s budget request.
The Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, could get $13.582 billion, a $1.639 billion boost from the fiscal year 2021 level and the same as Biden’s budget request.
The fiscal year 2022 Senate Financial Services and General Government bill provides $29 billion, which is $4.777 billion more than the fiscal year 2021 enacted level, and $154 million less than the Biden’s budget request.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., released Monday the remaining nine Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations bills.
The IRS increase, Leahy said, will allow the agency “to address the annual tax gap estimated to be between $500 million and $1 trillion annually, to improve its customer services activities, and to address the agency’s aging IT infrastructure.”
The amount allocated for the SEC includes $7 million for costs associated with a replacement lease for the Commission’s Fort Worth Regional Office.
Funds appropriated for the SEC are fully offset with transaction fee receipts, the financial services bill states.
These new investments, the bill states, are projected to generate almost $40 billon over 10 years.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, added that the bill “will also improve taxpayer services at the IRS, modernize outdated technology infrastructure, and ensure the IRS has more tools to go after wealthy abusers of our tax system.”
The bills comply with the topline spending allocation contained in the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Resolution.
“These bills make important investments in our nation’s infrastructure, our environment, and the middle class, including historic increases to promote affordable housing, educate our nation’s children, combat climate change, and improve healthcare,” Leahy said.
Leahy noted his previous call “for bipartisan, bicameral, negotiations on topline spending for Fiscal Year 2022, and I renew that call today so we can enact all 12 appropriations bills by Dec. 3, when the current Continuing Resolution expires.”