I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 888 

To provide accountability for funding provided to the Internal Revenue Service 

and the Department of the Treasury under Public Law 117–169. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 9, 2023 

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. FEENSTRA, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. 

SMUCKER, and Mr. ESTES) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the 

Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 

Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 

the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To provide accountability for funding provided to the Internal 

Revenue Service and the Department of the Treasury 

under Public Law 117–169. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘IRS Funding Account5 ability Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ANNUAL COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING PLAN FOR IN2 CREASED INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE RE3 SOURCES. 

4 (a) LIMITATION ON FUNDING.— 

5 (1) INITIAL PLAN.— 

6 (A) IN GENERAL.—None of the funds de7 scribed in paragraph (3) may be obligated dur8 ing the period— 

9 (i) beginning on the date of the enact10 ment of this Act; and 

11 (ii) ending on the date that is 60 days 

12 after the spending plan described in sub13 section (b)(1)(A) has been submitted. 

14 (B) ADDITIONAL MORATORIUM.—If Con15 gress enacts a joint resolution of disapproval 

16 described in subsection (c) with respect to the 

17 Internal Revenue Service spending plan before 

18 the date described in subparagraph (A)(ii), 

19 then— 

20 (i) the Commissioner of Internal Rev21 enue shall submit a new spending plan 

22 under subsection (b)(1)(A); and 

23 (ii) the period described in subpara24 graph (A) shall not end before the date 

25 that is 60 days after such new spending 

26 plan is submitted. 


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1 (2) SUBSEQUENT SUBMISSIONS.— 

2 (A) IN GENERAL.—None of the funds de3 scribed in paragraph (3) may be obligated dur4 ing any period— 

5 (i) beginning on the date Congress 

6 has enacted a joint resolution of dis7 approval under subsection (c) with respect 

8 to any spending plan described in sub9 section (b)(1)(B); and 

10 (ii) ending on the date that is 60 days 

11 after the date on which the Commissioner 

12 of Internal Revenue has submitted a new 

13 spending plan under such subsection. 

14 (B) ADDITIONAL MORATORIUM.—If Con15 gress enacts a joint resolution of disapproval 

16 described in subsection (c) with respect to any 

17 new spending plan submitted under subpara18 graph (A)(ii) before the date that is 60 days 

19 after the date on which such new spending plan 

20 has been submitted, then— 

21 (i) the Commissioner of Internal Rev22 enue shall submit an additional new spend23 ing plan under subsection (b)(1)(B); and 

24 (ii) the period described in subpara25 graph (A) shall not end before the date 


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1 that is 60 days after such additional new 

2 spending plan is submitted. 

3 (3) FUNDS DESCRIBED.—The funds described 

4 in this paragraph are the following: 

5 (A) Any funds made available under clause 

6 (ii), (iii), or (iv) of section 10301(1)(A) of Pub7 lic Law 117–169. 

8 (B) Any funds made available under sec9 tion 10301(1)(A)(i) of Public Law 117–169 

10 other than funds used for the following pur11 poses: 

12 (i) Eliminating any correspondence or 

13 return processing backlog. 

14 (ii) Reducing call wait times for tax15 payers and tax professionals. 

16 (b) ANNUAL COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING PLAN.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.— 

18 (A) INITIAL PLAN.—Not later than 60 

19 days after the date of the enactment of this 

20 Act, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 

21 shall submit to the appropriate Congressional 

22 committees a spending plan described in para23 graph (2). 

24 (B) SUBSEQUENT SUBMISSIONS.— 


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1 (i) IN GENERAL.—For each fiscal year 

2 beginning after the plan described in sub3 paragraph (A) is submitted and ending 

4 with fiscal year 2031, the Commissioner of 

5 Internal Revenue shall submit to the ap6 propriate Congressional committees a 

7 spending plan described in paragraph (2) 

8 on the date that the President submits the 

9 budget required under section 1105(a) of 

10 title 31, United States Code. 

11 (ii) REDUCTION IN APPROPRIATION.— 

12 (I) IN GENERAL.—In the case of 

13 any failure to submit a plan required 

14 under clause (i) by the date that is 7 

15 days after the date the plan is re16 quired to be submitted and, the 

17 amounts made available under section 

18 10301(1)(A)(ii) of Public Law 117– 

19 169 shall be reduced by $10,000,000 

20 for each day after such required date 

21 that report has not been submitted. 

22 (II) REQUIRED DATE.—For pur23 poses of this clause, the term ‘‘re24 quired date’’ means, with respect to 

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1 graph, the date that is 7 days after 

2 such plan is required to be submitted. 

3 (2) SPENDING PLAN.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—A spending plan de5 scribed in this subparagraph is a plan that— 

6 (i) details how the funds appropriated 

7 under section 10301(1) of Public Law 

8 117–169 will be spent over— 

9 (I) the period consisting of the 

10 current fiscal year and the next 4 fis11 cal years ending before fiscal year 

12 2032; and 

13 (II) the period consisting of the 

14 current fiscal year through the fiscal 

15 year ending with fiscal year 2031 (if 

16 such period includes any period not 

17 described in subclause (I)); 

18 (ii) contains the information described 

19 in subparagraph (B); 

20 (iii) has been reviewed by— 

21 (I) the Internal Revenue Service 

22 Advisory Council; 

23 (II) the Comptroller of the 

24 United States; 


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1 (III) the National Taxpayer Ad2 vocate; and 

3 (IV) the Director of the Office of 

4 Management and Budget; and 

5 (iv) has been approved by the Director 

6 of the Office of Management and Budget. 

7 (B) PLAN CONTENTS.—The information 

8 described in this paragraph is the following: 

9 (i) A detailed explanation of the plan, 

10 including— 

11 (I) costs and results to date, ac12 tual expenditures of the prior fiscal 

13 year, actual and expected expenditures 

14 of the current fiscal year, upcoming 

15 deliverables and expected costs, and 

16 total expenditures; 

17 (II) clearly defined objectives, 

18 timelines, and metrics for quan19 titatively measuring the plan’s annual 

20 progress, including with respect to 

21 measuring improvements in taxpayer 

22 services, revenue collection, informa23 tion technology, cybersecurity, and 

24 taxpayer data protections; and 


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1 (III) a description of any dif2 ferences between metrics described in 

3 subclause (II) and corresponding 

4 metrics used by the National Tax5 payer Advocate, the Comptroller Gen6 eral of the United States, and the 

7 Treasury Inspector General for Tax 

8 Administration. 

9 (ii) A detailed analysis of the perform10 ance of the Internal Revenue Service with 

11 respect to the delivery of taxpayer services, 

12 including— 

13 (I) the Level of Service (LOS) of 

14 phone lines (as a percent of phone 

15 calls answered by an Internal Revenue 

16 Service employee, not to include cour17 tesy disconnects or automated call 

18 backs); 

19 (II) the median and average wait 

20 time to speak to a representative of 

21 the Internal Revenue Service; 

22 (III) the amount of unprocessed 

23 taxpayer correspondence, including 

24 tax returns, responses to Internal 

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1 ments, and other similar types of cor2 respondence; and 

3 (IV) the median and average 

4 length of time for processing the 

5 items described in subclause (III) and 

6 processing refund claims. 

7 (iii) An analysis identifying any in8 crease or decrease in total annual audits 

9 and annual audit rates by income group 

10 for the period beginning in 2018 and end11 ing with the year the report is submitted. 

12 Such analysis shall include a detailed de13 scription of what constitutes an ‘‘audit’’ by 

14 the Internal Revenue Service, and if the 

15 definition of an ‘‘audit’’ used by the Inter16 nal Revenue Service differs from the defi17 nition used by the National Taxpayer Ad18 vocate, the Comptroller General of the 

19 United States, or the Treasury Inspector 

20 General for Tax Administration, there 

21 shall also be included an analysis using 

22 such divergent definition. 

23 (iv) A categorizing of the number of 

24 audits for each year in the analysis de25 scribed in clause (iv) which were— 


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1 (I) correspondence audits; 

2 (II) office audits; 

3 (III) field audits; 

4 (IV) audits under the Internal 

5 Revenue Service National Research 

6 Program; and 

7 (V) other audits. 

8 (v) A description of all taxpayer com9 pliance actions or initiatives undertaken 

10 using funding appropriated under section 

11 10301(1)(A) of Public Law 117–169 that 

12 do not rise to the level of an audit, with 

13 each action broken out by the total number 

14 of such actions undertaken for each income 

15 group and as a percentage of taxpayers in 

16 each income group. 

17 (vi) An explanation of any unresolved 

18 or outstanding recommendations made by 

19 the Government Accountability Office and 

20 the Treasury Inspector General for Tax 

21 Administration pertaining to taxpayer-data 

22 privacy protections, Internal Revenue Serv23 ice taxpayer services, and Internal Revenue 

24 Service technology modernization efforts 


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1 that are addressed by the plan and a de2 scription of how they are addressed. 

3 (vii) For any recommendations identi4 fied by the Government Accountability Of5 fice and the Treasury Inspector General 

6 for Tax Administration as ‘‘high risk’’ or 

7 ‘‘priority’’ that are not addressed in the 

8 plan, an explanation of why such rec9 ommendations are not addressed in the 

10 plan. 

11 (3) TESTIMONY OF RELEVANT OFFICIALS.—Not 

12 later than 30 days after any spending plan described 

13 in paragraph (2) has been submitted, the Secretary 

14 of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal 

15 Revenue shall testify in person before any of the ap16 propriate Congressional committees that request 

17 their testimony with respect to such spending plan. 

18 (4) REQUIREMENT TO NOTIFY OF EXCESS

19 SPENDING.—The Commissioner of Internal Revenue 

20 shall immediately notify the appropriate Congres21 sional committees if actual obligations and expendi22 tures for any account for any period for which pro23 jections are made in a plan submitted under para24 graph (2) exceed the amount of obligations and exVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:20 Mar 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H888.IH H888

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1 penditures projected for such account in such plan 

2 by 5 percent or more. 

3 (c) JOINT RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL OF THE

4 IRS COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING PLAN.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this section, 

6 the term ‘‘joint resolution of disapproval of the IRS 

7 comprehensive spending plan’’ means only a joint 

8 resolution introduced in the period beginning on the 

9 date on which a spending plan submitted pursuant 

10 to subsection (b)(1)(A) is received by the appro11 priate Congressional committees and ending 60 days 

12 thereafter (excluding days either House of Congress 

13 is adjourned for more than 3 days during a session 

14 of Congress), the matter after the resolving clause of 

15 which is as follows: ‘‘That Congress disapproves the 

16 plan submitted on llll by the Internal Rev17 enue Service relating to the comprehensive spending 

18 plan under section 2(b)(1) of the IRS Funding Ac19 countability Act with respect to fiscal year lll.’’. 

20 (The blank spaces being appropriately filled in). 

21 (2) APPLICATION OF CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW

22 ACT DISAPPROVAL PROCEDURES.— 

23 (A) IN GENERAL.—The rules of section 

24 802 of title 5, United States Code, shall apply 

25 to a joint resolution of disapproval of the IRS 


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1 comprehensive spending plan in the same man2 ner as such rules apply to a joint resolution de3 scribed in subsection (a) of such section. 

4 (B) EXERCISE OF RULEMAKING AUTHOR5 ITY.—This section is enacted by Congress— 

6 (i) as an exercise of the rulemaking 

7 power of the Senate and House of Rep8 resentatives, respectively, and as such it is 

9 deemed a part of the rules of each House, 

10 respectively, but applicable only with re11 spect to the procedure to be followed in 

12 that House in the case of a joint resolution 

13 of disapproval of the IRS comprehensive 

14 spending plan described in paragraph (1), 

15 and it supersedes other rules only to the 

16 extent that it is inconsistent with such 

17 rules; and 

18 (ii) with full recognition of the con19 stitutional right of either House to change 

20 the rules (so far as relating to the proce21 dure of that House) at any time, in the 

22 same manner, and to the same extent as in 

23 the case of any other rule of that House. 

24 SEC. 3. QUARTERLY REPORTS. 

25 (a) INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 14 days after 

2 the last day of each calendar quarter beginning dur3 ing the applicable period, the Commissioner of Inter4 nal Revenue shall submit to the appropriate Con5 gressional committees a report on any expenditures 

6 and obligations of funds appropriated under section 

7 10301(1) of Public Law 117–169. 

8 (2) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The report provided 

9 under paragraph (1) shall include the following: 

10 (A) A plain language description of the 

11 specific actions taken by the Commissioner of 

12 Internal Revenue utilizing any funds appro13 priated under section 10301(1) of Public Law 

14 117–169. 

15 (B) The obligations and expenditures dur16 ing the quarter of funds appropriated under 

17 section 10301(1) of Public Law 117–169 and 

18 the expected expenditure of such funds in the 

19 subsequent quarter, including a comparison of 

20 obligations and expenditures between amounts 

21 spent for taxpayers services and amounts spent 

22 for examinations and collections by each divi23 sion or office of the Internal Revenue Service, 

24 including the Large Business and International 

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1 vision, the Tax-Exempt and Government Enti2 ties Division, the Wage and Investment Divi3 sion, the Criminal Investigation Office, the 

4 Whistleblower Office, and the Office of the Tax5 payer Advocate. 

6 (C) A description of any new full-time or 

7 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, contrac8 tors, or other staff hired by the Internal Rev9 enue Service, including the number of new 

10 hires, the primary function or activity type of 

11 each new hire, and the specific Division or Of12 fice to which each new hire is tasked. 

13 (D) The number of new employees that 

14 have passed a security clearance compared to 

15 the number of new employees hired to a posi16 tion requiring a security clearance, along with 

17 an indication of whether any new employee that 

18 has not passed a security clearance or suit19 ability determination has access to taxpayer re20 turn information (as defined by section 

21 6103(b)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 

22 1986). 

23 (E) A detailed description of any violation 

24 of the fair tax collection practices described in 

25 section 6304 of the Internal Revenue Code of 


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1 1986 by any employees, contractors, or other 

2 staff described in subparagraph (C) (including 

3 violations tracked in Automated Labor and Em4 ployee Relations Tracking System (ALERTS) 

5 of the Human Capital Office of the Internal 

6 Revenue Service). 

7 (F) The status of recommendations pro8 vided by the Government Accountability Office 

9 and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax 

10 Administration which have been identified as 

11 being addressed by a spending plan under sec12 tion 2(b)(1), including whether the implementa13 tion of such recommendations has been com14 pleted, is in progress, or is open (including the 

15 expected date of completion for any rec16 ommendations identified as in progress or 

17 open). 

18 (3) REDUCTION IN APPROPRIATION.—In the 

19 case of any failure to submit a report required under 

20 paragraph (1) by the required date, the amounts 

21 made available under section 10301(1)(A)(ii) of 

22 Public Law 117–169 shall be reduced by $1,000,000 

23 for each day after such required date that report has 

24 not been submitted. 

25 (b) DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 14 days after 

2 the last day of each calendar quarter beginning dur3 ing the applicable period, the Secretary of the Treas4 ury shall submit to the appropriate Congressional 

5 committees a report containing the following infor6 mation: 

7 (A) A plain-language description of the ac8 tions taken by the Secretary of the Treasury 

9 utilizing any funds appropriated under para10 graph (1), (3), or (5) of section 10301 of Public 

11 Law 117–169. Any action which is described in 

12 a report made under subsection (a) may be de13 scribed by reference to the action in such re14 port. 

15 (B) A detailed description of the specific 

16 purposes to which the funds appropriated under 

17 section 10301(3) of Public Law 117–169 has 

18 been (or is expected to be) obligated. 

19 (C) A description of any new full-time or 

20 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, contrac21 tors, or other staff hired by the Secretary uti22 lizing funds appropriated under section 10301 

23 of Public Law 117–169, including the number 

24 of new hires and whether the duties of each 

25 new hire includes any functions related to the 


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1 Internal Revenue Service (including implemen2 tation of tax policies, enforcement, regulations, 

3 research, press or communications, or other 

4 purposes). 

5 (D) A detailed description and explanation 

6 of any changes to the most recent Priority 

7 Guidance Plan of the Department of the Treas8 ury and the Internal Revenue Service involving 

9 guidance projects that utilize any funds appro10 priated under section 10301 of Public Law 

11 117–169 or which are related to the implemen12 tation of any provision of or amendment made 

13 by such Public Law. 

14 (E) A description of any new initiatives 

15 planned to be undertaken by the Department of 

16 the Treasury within the existing or subsequent 

17 fiscal year which will (or may) utilize funds ap18 propriated under section 10301 of Public Law 

19 117–169. 

20 (2) REDUCTION IN APPROPRIATION.—In the 

21 case of any failure to submit a report required under 

22 paragraph (1) by the required date— 

23 (A) the amounts made available under 

24 paragraphs (3) of section 10301 of Public Law 

25 117–169 shall be reduced by $666,667 for each 


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1 day after such required date that report has not 

2 been submitted, and 

3 (B) the amounts made available under 

4 paragraphs (5) of section 10301 of Public Law 

5 117–169 shall be reduced by $333,333 for each 

6 day after such required date that report has not 

7 been submitted. 

8 (c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 

9 (1) APPLICABLE PERIOD.—The term ‘‘applica10 ble period’’ means the period beginning after the 

11 date the plan under section 2(b)(1)(A) is required to 

12 be submitted and ending on September 30, 2031. 

13 (2) REQUIRED DATE.—The term ‘‘required 

14 date’’ means, with respect to any report required to 

15 be submitted under subsection (a) or (b), the date 

16 that is 7 days after the date the report is required 

17 to be submitted. 

18 SEC. 4. APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE19 FINED. 

20 For purposes of this Act, the term ‘‘appropriate Con21 gressional committees’’ means— 

22 (1) the Committee on Finance of the Senate; 

23 (2) the Committee on Appropriations of the 

24 Senate; 


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1 (3) the Committee on Ways and Means of the 

2 House of Representatives; and 

3 (4) the Committee on Appropriations of the 

4 House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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