WASHINGTON – The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill that would maintain current funding levels for both the Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission as well as increase federal funding for the District of Columbia.
The committee rejected the budget cuts for the agencies and D.C. that were approved by the House Appropriations Committee earlier this month.
"This legislation represents a very good effort to fund federal agencies despite budget constraints," said Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The fiscal 2017 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill would provide a total of $22.4 billion in funding, which is $1 billion below the fiscal 2016 enacted level, according to the committee.
It includes $11.2 billion for the IRS, equal to the fiscal 2016 enacted level. The bill approved by the House included only $10.9 billion for the agency.
Of the $11.2 billion, $290 million must go to improvements in customer service, identity theft protection and cybersecurity to protect taxpayer data, according to the committee. Similar to the House-approved bill, the Senate committee's approved bill includes several provisions limiting how the IRS can spend the appropriated funds.
The agency is prohibited from using the funds to: target taxpayers for exercising their First Amendment rights; target groups based on their ideological beliefs; for the production of "inappropriate videos and conferences"; or fund the rehiring of former employees unless employee conduct and tax compliance is considered.
Lawmakers have called for additional IRS oversight after it came under fire for its use of tax dollars to probe the tax-exempt status of tea party groups.
The legislation would provide $1.6 billion for the SEC, also equal to the fiscal 2016 enacted level. Committee members said much of the funding should be used for the commission's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis as well as information technology initiatives. The House subcommittee bill would have cut SEC funding to $1.5 billion for fiscal 2017.
Senate committee members did not include mention of the unobligated balances of the SEC's reserve fund, which the House subcommittee proposed rescinding in its legislation. The committee called the balances a "slush fund" created under Dodd-Frank that it said the commission could freely spend without congressional oversight.
The District of Columbia would receive $746 million in federal funding to be used for public safety and security costs as well as the district's court system and offender supervision.
The House-approved bill included only $725 million for D.C., which would have been $4.6 million lower than the fiscal 2016 enacted level. The district passed its $13.4 billion fiscal 2017 budget last month despite Republican lawmakers threatening legal and administrative charges against district officials if they did not first seek congressional approval.
"This bill represents important steps in our commitment to protect taxpayer dollars," said Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's financial services and general government appropriations subcommittee. "These investments will help provide the services taxpayers depend on."
The Senate committee bill would also provide $347 million for departmental offices within the Treasury Department as well as additional funding to the Executive Office of the President, Judiciary, Small Business Administration and General Services Administration. Also included in the bill are appropriations for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
