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SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Republican senators, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, introduced a bill this week that they say would keep the IRS from being used for political purposes against conservatives.
The move stems in part from a political scandal during the years former President Barack Obama was in office, when the IRS was found to be targeting conservative nonprofits, particularly those associated with the tea party movement. In 2017, the IRS settled with close to 500 conservative groups for their treatment by IRS agents when they sought tax-exempt status.
The senators said they were also motivated by news from journalist Matt Taibbi, who said that while he was testifying in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, IRS agents visited his house in New Jersey.
The committee's chair, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News he may subpoena documents related to the IRS' visit to Taibbi's home.
The Republican senators who introduced the bill questioned the timing of the visit.
"The bill's reintroduction comes as the IRS' impartiality is being questioned for visiting the home of journalist Matt Taibbi — whose reporting revealed collaboration between the federal government and social media companies such as Twitter to censor inconvenient information and counter-narrative news stories," a press release from Romney's office said.
The bill, which was introduced in a previous Congress, is called the Don't Weaponize the IRS Act and puts into law a rule established when former President Donald Trump was in office that keeps the IRS from asking for the names and addresses of donors to nonprofit organizations.
"Too often over the last decade, the IRS has been used for political means," said Romney. "This legislation will prevent the IRS from targeting Americans — because of their presumed political or religious beliefs — in the future."
Democratic senators asked the Biden administration to overturn the Trump rule on donor disclosure, saying in a letter that the "IRS rule is a major step backwards for transparency and will allow dark money to continue to corrode our political system," according to The Washington Post.
Republican lawmakers have also raised concerns about an $80 billion increase in funding for the IRS that was approved last year, and President Joe Biden's budget asks for another $29 billion for the agency.
Biden has defended additional funds for the IRS, saying they are necessary to pay for tax enforcement.
