Congress approves funding bill that maintains IRS budget

Congress avoided a government shutdown when the House approved a stopgap bill that maintains current funding levels for federal government agencies, including the IRS, and forwarded it to the president for his signature.

The House voted 370–48 on Tuesday to approve H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, which funds certain government operations through Dec. 11, avoiding a shutdown that would otherwise have started Sept. 30. Under the bill, the IRS would maintain its annual budget of $11.2 billion through that date. The Senate approved the bill 90–6 on Aug. 8.

The bill also blocks a second budget rescission of over $11.6 billion for the IRS during the continuing resolution period. The funding had originally been rescinded in Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, P.L. 119-75, which Congress passed in February.

An earlier House version of the continuing resolution did not address the potential for a second rescission, but the Senate-passed version approved Tuesday included language preventing that outcome.

IRS funding has fluctuated significantly in recent years. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, P.L. 117-169, originally budgeted $79.4 billion in supplemental money for the IRS to spend over 10 years. By January of this year, Congress had reduced that amount to $26 billion that was available through Sept. 30, 2031, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported in March.

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Martha Waggoner at Martha.Waggoner@aicpa-cima.com.