As the country was busy celebrating July 4th last week and reeling from shootings, the House of Representatives was busy winding down some bills before heading off for the summer recess. The House and Senate both had been working to “pursue regular order”, that is pass appropriations bills with debate and amendments through the chambers without resorting to messy continuing resolutions. However, the Chambers were only able to move one bill beyond initial passage and into the conference report stage, the Military Construction and Veterans Administration but Democrats in the Senate balked as House Republicans added riders that they would not accept.
A handful of appropriations measures were able to able to pass single chambers, one of those, Financial Services, was able to pass the House chamber thanks to some leadership from Georgia Representatives. The 265 page bill with 139 amendments ended up having a lot of names attached to it in some way but a bipartisan group of Georgians were among them. Representative Tom Price(R-GA 6) took to social media to tout the passage and its effects on the Internal Revenue Service. As it is Financial Services, the bill serves as oversight of the IRS and House Republicans took the opportunity. Several measures within the bill specifically limit actions the IRS can take, including:
– A prohibition on a proposed regulation relation political activities and the tax-exempt status of 501(c)(4) groups. According to Price, ” proposed regulation could jeopardize the tax-exempt status of many nonprofit organizations and inhibit citizens from exercising their right to freedom of speech.”
– A prohibition on funds for the IRS to target groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs.
– A prohibition on funds for the White House to order the IRS to determine the tax-exempt status of an organization.
Much of these actions were likely taken in response to the controversy involving former Director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division Lois Lerner and alleged targeting of conservative groups, primarily Tea Party-related. A report from the Treasury Department Inspector General concluded that just six progressive groups were targeted regarding their tax exempt status as opposed to 292 conservative groups.
The thirteen member Rules Committee in the House where the Financial Services bill started (following the report from the Financial Services Subcommittee, which has two Georgia members, Reps. Tom Graves (R-GA 14) and Sanford Bishop (D-GA 2)) has two Georgia members, Reps. Rob Woodall (R-GA 7) and Doug Collins (R-GA 9). The bill passed out of Committee on a near unanimous party line vote, Collins, Woodall six other Republicans yeas and all Democrats and a lone Republican voted no.
A number of Georgians offered amendments to the bill. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA 5) inserted a prohibition on the IRS using private contractors to collect unpaid Federal taxes. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA 3) and Rep. Collins both had amendments regarding financial regulations.
Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA 8), in an effort previously covered by Insider Advantage, ended up withdrawing his amendment to prohibits funds from being used to expand the Lifeline program to provide support for broadband internet access until the Federal Communications Commission implements an operating budget cap of $2 million.
Following the recess, it will largely be up to the Senate to push through the bill before October when the next fiscal year begins. With election season looming, both parties may face pressure to pass bills but will also face pressure to not give in.
