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FIRST ON FOX – Rep. Claudia Tenney, RN.Y., is introducing a bill that seeks to redirect funding from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to finance the hiring of more Border Patrol agents on the US-Mexico border.
The bill, titled the “Diversion of IRS Resources to the Current Crisis Act,” or the “DIRECT Act,” aims to “revoke certain balances made available to the Internal Revenue Service and redirect them to the US Customs and Border Protection.”
Specifically, the proposal seeks to have “unobligated balances” appropriated or made available to the IRS for “enforcement activities” under federal law, rather than going to CBP “for wages and expenses of new agents and officers hired to secure the southern border of the United States,” according to the bill’s language. Tenney is reintroducing the 2023 bill in the newly sworn-in 119th Congress.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, RNY, speaks during a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Capitol Hill on June 12, 2024 in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“The Biden-Harris administration has overseen the entry of more than 10 million illegal immigrants in our country,” Tenney said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “However, instead of prioritizing border security and supporting CBP agents, they focused on sending the IRS in to harass classy families average The DIRECT Act prevents Biden’s IRS army from launching audits of middle-class families and reinvests those funds to hire additional Customs and Border Protection agents to secure the southern border.”
The congresswoman added, “As we move into the new administration, it is vital to provide CBP agents with the additional resources needed to secure our borders and deport illegal immigrants, ensuring they can effectively support the agenda of President Trump and the border czar Homan.”
The headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington, DC (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Congress passed the Biden 2022 Inflation Reduction Act without any support from Republicans. The package allocated about $80 billion to the IRS, giving the green light to the hiring 87,000 new IRS agents in 2035, including enforcement agents.
That stipulation became an issue for Republicans, including Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, who accused Biden’s IRS of trying to “harass hardworking Americans.”
Former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas Homan speaks during day three of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis., on July 17, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped billionaire Elon Musk and business partner Vivek Ramaswamy to head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The nongovernmental task force will be charged with finding ways to cut the federal workforce and ax programs and federal regulations as part of Trump’s “Save America” agenda for a second term .
Trump announced Wednesday that he would establish another new agency, the External Revenue Serviceto collect tariffs and other financing owed to the US by foreign entities.
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Incoming border czar Tom Homan, who like Tenney is a native New Yorker, is tasked with delivering on Trump’s promise of mass deportations of criminal illegal immigrants and drug dealers.
Tenney, who co-chaired the House Elections Integrity Caucus in the middle of the 2024 race that ended with Trump’s victory, also recently introduced a bill that seeks to strip federal funds from states that allow immigrants illegal to have driver’s licenses.
