In Opposition to Democrats' Reconciliation Package

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Madam Speaker, I rise to highlight one specific danger of the Democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. My colleagues have highlighted many concerns and many issues that this tax-and-spend monstrosity will advance, partisan priorities like taxpayer-funded abortions, the Green New Deal, a $2.1 trillion tax increase on businesses and hardworking American families. The provision that I am speaking of specifically threatens our individual freedoms and personal privacy.

This provision is an expansive IRS mandate that would give the government unprecedented access into our wallets and spending patterns. This provision would force our neighborhood banks and local credit unions to hand over constituents' private financial information directly to the IRS.

This decree levies an outrageous compliance cost on the credit unions and banks that serve my community, meaning higher fees and lower saving yields for First District families.

More importantly, this intrusion into our transactions poses extraordinary privacy concerns and subjects Utahns' financial information to hacking, political targeting, and government surveillance. This abusive provision will collect massive amounts of personal financial data on middle-class families.

Imagine the ways that any administration, Democrat or Republican, could be tempted to use that information and to intrude on our private businesses and lifestyle choices.

Even still, this will not close the tax gap. This provision isn't targeting wealthy tax evaders, as President Biden claims. It is targeting normal, working-class, everyday Americans. $3.5 trillion, and for President Biden to say it is not going to cost us anything?

Democrats know they can't tax enough to make up that difference, so they are finding these unique, obscure ways to employ or to basically deploy the IRS on everyday working Americans in their regular checking accounts.

I condemn this unconstitutional and invasive Federal overreach, and I stand with Utah families who depend on the security and privacy that their financial institutions provide.

I encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to oppose this provision, and I look forward to voting against the entirety of Speaker Pelosi's reconciliation package.

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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Hern for leading this entire session and the opportunity to close.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to close today's session by remembering the sacrifice and heroism of Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover who bravely gave his life while defending Abbey Gate from violent extremists in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021.

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Staff Sergeant Hoover knew he wanted to be a marine. At the time of his death, Staff Sergeant Hoover had served as a marine for 11 years and was on his third tour in Afghanistan.

In Utah we have been devastated by this news.

On Sunday after the attacks, I joined hundreds of Utahns gathered at the State capitol for a memorial vigil to honor Staff Sergeant Hoover. I also attended his funeral service before being laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery and was overwhelmed by memories shared by his family and friends. He was treasured, loved, and admired, and he gave all for our freedoms.

Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover will rightly be remembered as a hero in the Halls of Congress, in Utah, and across the Nation that he served.

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