Relating to the Consideration of House Report and An Accompanying Resolution
Floor Speech
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Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Minnesota for yielding and Mr. Ferguson for leading this effort.
If the previous question is defeated, we will amend the rule and immediately consider H.R. 5586, the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act.
This legislation would prohibit the Treasury Department and the IRS from implementing any new financial account surveillance regimes. This is a direct response to this administration's invasive proposal that would require financial institutions to report transaction data on every American's bank account that meets their proposed threshold.
I am deeply skeptical of the need for this dangerous expansion of IRS oversight and believe it to be a significant risk to individual privacy. The Democrats are leading the American people to believe that this is needed to target wealthy tax cheats and to help close the tax gap. Unfortunately, this proposal, even with a $10,000 threshold, would subject Americans at every rung of the economic ladder to these onerous reporting requirements. This includes middle-class families, small business owners, and farmers.
Even with proposed carve-outs, this proposal would turn local banks into IRS reporting units, which is not only incredibly burdensome but also costly. I have already been hearing from local bankers in Morton and Liberty, Illinois, and throughout my district who are deeply concerned about how this proposal will encourage their customers to empty out their bank accounts, further exacerbating the unbanked-banked divide.
In a letter dated September 29, 2021, the Department of the Treasury cited that the IRS experiences 1.4 billion cyberattacks a year. I don't know a single American who would like to have their personal data reported to a system that is highly targeted by hackers and foreign adversaries. In addition, the IRS' track record for leaking personal information raises serious questions about their ability to implement a program of this scale.
I am proud to join my friend, Congressman Ferguson, in his effort to protect Americans' privacy, and I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question.
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