Washington, D.C. – During a House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing, Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-01) called out the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for directing more federal funds toward efforts to target American taxpayers rather than investing in modernization and cybersecurity improvements to ward off threats from foreign adversaries like China.
“At the end of last year, the U.S. Treasury Department experienced more than one cybersecurity breach by the Chinese government into sensitive U.S. financial information,” said Congressman Moran. “In these breaches, Chinese hackers stole thousands of documents. The breach comes amid a number of cybersecurity breaches all over the country due to outdated cybersecurity infrastructure that has proven to be vulnerable to foreign operatives on a number of occasions.”
“While these threats are growing, the IRS is spending more federal funding on targeting American taxpayers through enforcement than it is on improving cybersecurity and modernization to protect the American taxpayer and increase liberty,” continued Congressman Moran.
In his remarks, Congressman Moran highlighted the fact that the IRS directed $4.75 billion of the $80 billion it received from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) toward system modernization. In contrast, the IRS spent many times that number – $45.64 billion – to increase enforcement efforts against American taxpayers, mainly the middle-class.
“Taxpayers are the client – not the target,” concluded Congressman Moran.
