The Biden administration is warning that without congressional intervention to boost spending in certain areas, many federal offices across government will be forced to cease hiring ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
Congressional leaders have suggested in recent weeks that lawmakers will pass a stopgap continuing resolution to keep agencies afloat past the current Dec. 20 deadline, once again punting on year-long funding in favor of keeping spending levels flat at current levels. Needs at various agencies have fluctuated, however, and the administration has suggested they will have to take dramatic steps to rein in costs without additional funds.
The Internal Revenue Service, for example, warned last week that absent congressional intervention it may have to stop hiring, compromising the significant progress it has made to backfill longstanding vacancies and grow its workforce. That is due to language Republican appropriators slipped into the prior CR that essentially froze $20 billion Congress previously provided IRS as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The White House is now asking lawmakers to unfreeze that money, suggesting the language was erroneously included and would have devastating impacts for the agency and its efforts to ramp up revenue collection on wealthy tax cheats.
“Our concern right now is that, because of this risk to the IRS and the uncertainty of it, the IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world in which they don’t have the $20 billion,” Treasury Department Secretary Wally Adeyemo recently told reporters.
The White House is requesting additional addendums to any CR, referred to as “anomalies” in federal budgeting language. It asked for the Federal Aviation Administration to be able to apportion enough funding to pay for salary increases and other obligations.
“Without this anomaly, FAA would be unable to continue to hire and train air traffic controllers,” the White House said in its budget document, a copy of which was obtained by CQ. Like IRS, FAA is currently in the midst of a hiring surge it has said is necessary to keep pace with increased demand.
All told, the Biden administration is requesting $24 billion in added funds to the CR. Separately, it is asking Congress for nearly $115 billion in emergency funding to aid in recovery efforts for hurricanes Helene, Milton and other storms.
