Cuts to IRS funding would increase deficit, union says

Significant cuts to Internal Revenue Service funding would impede the agency's ability to collect taxes to fund government, the National Treasury Employees Union said Wednesday.

A spending bill under consideration in the House would cut more than $600 million from current levels, $1.8 billion less than the White House request, while the Senate bill calls for more than $450 million in cuts, or $1.6 billion less than the White House request.

NTEU spoke out against the proposed cuts in a press release posted Wednesday to the group's website.

"The best way Congress can act to reduce the federal deficit is to ensure the IRS has the resources necessary to carry out its enforcement and tax compliance mission," union President Colleen M. Kelley wrote in a letter to the 12 members of the congressional super committee charged with producing a federal debt-reducing proposal.