EXCLUSIVE — Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is moving to make President Donald Trump’s promise of redirecting Biden-era funds for the IRS to the southern border a reality.
Scott previewed to the Washington Examiner on Thursday his plans to introduce the Securing Our Border Act in an effort to put some punch behind Trump’s Jan. 25 vow to redirect IRS resources to the border.
“President [Joe] Biden’s ill-advised decision to supercharge the IRS while we had a crisis on our southern border couldn’t have been more out-of-touch or unnecessary,” Scott said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “In just two weeks back in office, President Trump has signaled to the world that he is serious about securing our border and restoring peace and order in our communities. By redirecting these funds, we are taking steps to protect our national sovereignty and keep Americans safe.”
Scott’s forthcoming bill, slated to be introduced Friday, would redirect all unobligated funding that Democrats in Congress gave the IRS instead to be spent enhancing border security in several ways. The amount available to redirect to the border should amount to $22.4 billion, according to Scott’s office.
The funding was initially rolled out by the Biden administration to fund 87,000 IRS agents, a move that infuriated some people while millions of immigrants illegally entered the country between 2021 and 2024.
Specifically, the money would pay for nonintrusive border inspection machines that would better allow federal customs officers to detect fentanyl and other drugs, as well as people concealed in vehicles during checkpoint and port of entry inspections.
The funding would also go toward border wall construction, technological improvements, recruitment, retention, and relocation bonuses for Border Patrol agents, and it would effectively ban agents from releasing illegal immigrants apprehended at the border into the country.
Trump told attendees at a Las Vegas rally on Jan. 25, days after taking office, that he was considering sending the new IRS agents to guard the southern border. The threat came days after he signed an indefinite hiring freeze for the IRS.
“They hired or tried to hire, 88,000 workers to go after you, and we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we’ll move them to the border,” Trump said during the rally at the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
“I think we’re going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns. You know, they’re so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we will probably move them to the border.”
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The IRS funding, packaged inside Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, had appropriated nearly $80 billion over the next decade to cover IRS tax enforcement, taxpayer services, and the hiring of more IRS personnel, including the nearly 87,000 agents.
Scott introduced this bill in the previous legislative session but could see the bill move now that Republicans control both chambers and the White House.
