As Democrats seek to pass their “Build Back Better Act,” one member of Alabama’s congressional delegation is attempting to ensure the legislation does not pave the way for more armed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents.
Democrats are calling for the legislation to include $45 billion to be allocated toward IRS “enforcement.” Many view the move to beef up the tax collection agency as an effort to search for undertaxed dollars so as to provide more funding for the Biden administration’s hefty spending agenda.
According to the office of U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile), the IRS currently has around 2,000 armed agents, who it claims holds “a track record of frequently mishandling and misusing their firearms.”
Carl offered an amendment to the legislation that would have blocked any potential effort to arm additional IRS agents. However, Democrats refused to consider the congressman’s amendment.
In a statement outlining his opposition to Democrats’ proposal to further empower the IRS, Carl took note of the Biden administration’s efforts to grant the IRS more oversight in tracking Americans’ financial records.
“While Democrats are working around the clock to beef up the IRS and hire tens of thousands of additional agents to snoop on the banking transactions of innocent Americans, I have been fighting to ensure none of this money can be used to hire even more armed IRS agents,” said Carl.
The South Alabama congressman pledged to continue his efforts to combat what he deemed to be an “abuse of power” and asserted that increasing the number of armed IRS agents could pose a threat to Americans’ wellbeing.
“These agents have a horrible track record of misusing and mishandling their firearms, so the last thing we need is to hire more of them,” Carl added. “Democrats have rejected my attempts to prevent any further expansion of the IRS’s army of armed agents, but I will continue fighting this horrible abuse of power because it does nothing more than endanger the lives and property of Americans.”
The U.S. House of Representatives last week was poised to hold a vote on the “Build Back Better Act” until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reversed course in an apparent attempt to galvanize support for the legislation among the Democratic ranks.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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