House subcommittee trims IRS enforcement budget

Amtrak would be dramatically cut and IRS tax enforcement programs would get substantially less than President Bush requested under the fiscal 2005 Transportation-Treasury spending bill approved Thursday by the House Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee.

By voice vote, the subcommittee approved a bill with $25.4 billion in discretionary spending and $88.9 billion overall.

Amtrak would absorb a $318 million cut from its fiscal 2004 funding, while the IRS would get $382 million less than Bush requested, according to Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member John Olver, D-Mass. In addition, the measure does not include the nearly $800 million requested by the U.S. Postal Service for biohazard detection equipment.

Olver said Amtrak would be unable to complete the current fiscal year under the $900 million the subcommittee would provide, and claimed that even if more money is added it still would not be enough to address the rail service's pressing needs.

"We're playing Russian roulette -- with the safety and maintenance of our passenger rail system by leaving it unable to meet maintenance and safety needs," he said. Rep. Steven Rothman, D-N.J., criticized the reduction in requested funds for IRS, especially a $280 million reduction from the request specifically for tax enforcement. "For the life of me, I can't figure out why this subcommittee and the administration didn't provide more money for enforcement," he said. "Every dollar spent in enforcement will result in more than every dollar in revenue."

While acknowledging that "it's a difficult bill," Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ernest Istook, R-Okla., said the bill would still provide more than $100 million more for IRS enforcement than was appropriated for the current fiscal year. "It's not as much as we hoped," but it received more than other IRS agencies, he said.

After much debate, the subcommittee adopted an amendment by a party-line, 9-7 vote offered by Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, that would attempt to ban financial institutions from accepting the matricula consular identification card as a form of identification. The card is issued by the Mexican government to its citizens living in other countries and is accepted by some banks, police departments and other agencies and organizations, particularly in the southwest United States, as an acceptable form of identification. Culberson argued that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies say the cards are too easy to obtain and to forge and pose a possible threat to national security. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., and others argued that the subcommittee did not have the appropriate expertise to deal with an issue that could have a major impact.