October 31, 2023 Press Release WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) – Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government – and Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) – Member of the House Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs Committees – sent a letter to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regarding the partisan offsets that House Republicans made a condition of any supplemental aid to Israel. Republicans intend to rescind $14.3 billion made available to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce the law and collect taxes legally owed by the wealthy. Previous data from the CBO indicates that reducing funding to the IRS leads to even larger reductions in federal tax revenue and adds to the deficit. In their letter, the congressmen requested that the CBO conduct nonpartisan analysis to determine how much Republicans' proposed cuts to the IRS would cost American taxpayers. On October 7, Hamas terrorists launched a brutal attack on Israel, killing 1,400 Israelis and 33 American civilians, wounding 3,000 others, and taking over 238 innocent people of more than 30 nationalities – including at least 10 Americans – hostage. Israel has requested vital aid from the United States to recover the hostages and to defeat Hamas. “It is disgraceful that Republicans would make our support to Israel during this dire hour contingent on cheap political points,” Congressman Hoyer said. “They falsely claim these IRS cuts are part of their commitment to fiscal responsibility. In fact, their proposal to rescind funding from the IRS would only continue to allow many high-earners to break the law and cheat on their taxes – all to the detriment of hardworking American taxpayers. I am confident the CBO will confirm what all existing evidence indicates: rescinding IRS funding will cost Americans far more than it will save them. Even if these offsets actually lowered the deficit, which they won’t, they still would not belong in this bill.” “I am deeply frustrated and gravely concerned that Speaker Johnson has threatened desperately needed aid to Israel with unrelated partisan gamesmanship. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I know that the ‘offset’ Speaker Johnson is offering actually increases our deficit by empowering tax cheats and fraudsters to act with impunity. Americans deserve to be told the facts by the nonpartisan experts at CBO,” said Congressman Schneider. To read the full letter, click here or see below: To Director Swagel: We write you to request an analysis of the revenue and deficit impact of Sec. 306 of the “Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024” posted on the Committee on Rules website on October 30, 2023. In your May 30, 2023, letter to Speaker McCarthy (Re: CBO’s Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023), you noted of Title II of Division B of that act that rescinding approximately $1.4 billion in unobligated funds available to the Internal Revenue Service for enforcement enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act (PL 117-169) would result in $2.3 billion in lost revenue for a net increase to the deficit of $900 million over the 2023-33 period. That result is a ratio of approximately $1.64 in reduced federal revenue for every dollar rescinded, resulting in larger deficits rather than smaller. Section 306 of the Israel Supplemental proposes to rescind from identical accounts a sum, $14.3 billion, approximately 10 times larger than that in H.R. 3746. In line with your earlier analysis for H.R. 3746, a $14.3 billion rescission would imply a reduction in federal revenue of more than $23 billion and deficits larger by nearly $10 billion over the budget window. Support for Israel should not be conditioned on worsening our fiscal outlook by allowing the wealthiest to cheat their fellow Americans by avoiding the law. Your timely attention to a similar revenue and deficit analysis for Sec. 306 of the Israel Supplemental to that in your May 30 McCarthy letter would help Members weigh the full fiscal and moral implications of the tradeoff before us this week. Sincerely,