A sign is displayed outside the Internal Revenue Service building May 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
A bill that would try to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and eliminate federal income tax was reintroduced on Tuesday by Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter.
A vote on the bill, labeled the Fair Tax Act, was part of a deal that was negotiated between the House Freedom Caucus and Speaker Kevin McCarthy during his quest for the speakership.
The Act “will eliminate the need for the IRS by simplifying our tax code with provisions that work for the American people,” Carter said on Twitter.
The current federal income tax scheme would be replaced with a single nationwide consumption tax. The Office of Management and Budget criticized the bill and said it would only benefit certain taxpayers.
“With their first economic legislation of the new Congress, House Republicans are making clear that their top economic priority is to allow the rich and multi-billion dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes, while making life harder for ordinary, middle-class families that pay the taxes they owe,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.
The vote comes after House Republicans passed a bill Monday evening that would prevent plans to fund 87,000 new IRS agents, originally included in the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats passed last year.
A date has not been set for the vote on the Fair Tax Act. However, both bills are unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Lawmakers probing the cause of last month’s deadly Maui wildfire did not get many answers during Thursday's congressional hearing on the role the electrical grid played in the disaster.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that federal disaster assistance is available for Louisiana, which is working to slow a mass inflow of salt water creeping up the Mississippi River and threatening drinking water supplies in the southern part of the state.
A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour next year, an acknowledgment from the state's Democratic leaders that most of the often overlooked workforce are the primary earners for their low-income households.
From Sunday, workers at the main United States base in Antarctica will no longer be able to walk into a bar and order a beer, after the U.S. federal agency that oversees the research program decided to stop serving alcohol.
House Republicans launched a formal impeachment hearing Thursday against President Joe Biden, promising to “provide accountability” as they probe the family finances and business dealings of his son Hunter and make their case to the public, colleagues and a skeptical Senate.
The FBI and other government agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday.
The federal government is just days away from a shutdown that will disrupt many services, squeeze workers and roil politics as Republicans in the House, fueled by hard-right demands, force a confrontation over federal spending.
The Biden administration is finalizing a new rule that would cut federal funding for colleges that leave graduates with low pay and high debt after graduating.
The Biden administration is finalizing a new rule that would cut federal funding for colleges that leave graduates with low pay and high debt after graduating.