Dems Moving To Expand The IRS Beyond The Pentagon, State Dept, FBI, And Border Patrol

Democrats want the Internal Revenue Service, one of the most hated federal agencies, to have more officials than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol put together. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) negotiated the Inflation Reduction Act, which would provide the agency with $80 billion in cash to hire up to 87,000 extra workers. According to federal data, the rise would more than double the size of the IRS workforce, which presently has 78,661 full-time employees.

The Democrats' reconciliation plan depends on the extra funds for the IRS. According to a study by the Congressional Budget Office, adding more IRS agents would boost federal revenue by more than $200 billion over the following ten years. More than half of the money is designated explicitly for "enforcement," which includes tax audits and other duties like "digital asset monitoring."

The IRS would then rank among the biggest federal organizations. The Defense Department estimates that the Pentagon has about 27,000 employees, and a human resources data sheet indicates that the State Department has slightly over 77,243 people. According to the FBI website, there are about 35,000 employees at the organization, and Customs and Border Protection claims to have 19,536 Border Patrol personnel working for it.