WASHINGTON – A proposal to strengthen IRS enforcement to fight tax evaders and help fund a nearly $ 1,000 billion bipartisan infrastructure spending bill is officially defeated, the government said on Sunday. Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

Portman, who is involved in negotiating the bill, cited the “pushback” from fellow Republican lawmakers who dislike the idea of ​​expanding the reach of the IRS, which they have accused over the years. years of unfairly targeting the Conservatives. He said another reason the IRS provision was suspended is that Democrats are including a more robust enforcement plan in a separate $ 3.5 trillion infrastructure bill they have. intend to pass through the Senate using special budget rules and without Republican votes.

“This has created quite a problem, because the general agreement is that this is the bipartisan negotiated infrastructure package and that we will stick with it,” Portman said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Portman’s announcement that the IRS provision had been removed highlights the difficulty for the bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic senators to find mutually acceptable ways to pay billions of dollars in new spending that their White House-backed plan calls for .

Despite months of frantic negotiations, lawmakers are expected to return to Capitol Hill today in the same political position they left last week: they broadly back new spending to modernize roads, bridges, pipelines, ports and more. Internet connections, but remain plagued by a series of schisms over how to finance the package still being formed.

Portman said meetings were scheduled for Sunday to discuss alternatives available to the IRS, which would have grossed around $ 100 billion over 10 years. The proposal to go after taxpayers who don’t pay income tax initially had potential bipartisan appeal, but outside groups have come forward to castigate it as a way to allow the IRS to snoop around finances. personal Americans.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said at a congressional hearing in April that the national gap between federal taxes owed and actually collected is about $ 1 trillion a year, more than double from what official government estimates have previously indicated.

Privately, Portman and others had sought to reassure GOP lawmakers by offering safeguards over the IRS’s policing powers. But ideas did not seem to suffice, forcing negotiators to pull it out of their package.

Going forward, Portman added that they were exploring other ways to fund infrastructure reform, including an idea to reverse a potentially costly change to Medicare prescription drug rules announced under the Trump administration.

Much like with the IRS enforcement, however, Democrats signaled last week that they were considering a similar funding mechanism as part of their reconciliation plan, which no Republican has said they are likely to support. . The haggling has left some GOP lawmakers upset, accusing Democrats and the White House of the current inability to reach a compromise.

“We have offered pay, Republicans have, good faith pay that both sides agree is good,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Said. “And we offered them and the White House takes them, and says, no, we want them. We want them for our $ 3.5 trillion.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer is pressuring lawmakers to reach an agreement this week on the two main domestic spending measures, signaling Democrats’ desire to aggressively push forward the multibillion-dollar agenda. dollars from President Joe Biden.

Schumer, DN.Y., said last week that he was planning a procedural vote on Wednesday to begin debate on the still-evolving bipartisan infrastructure bill. Senators from both sides, negotiating for weeks, struggled to reach a final deal on a $ 1 trillion package of highways, water systems and other public works projects.

Portman on Sunday called it an “arbitrary delay” and premature given that senators have yet to agree on the details of the “complex” bill.

“Charles E. Schumer, with all due respect, doesn’t write the bill. Neither does Mitch McConnell, by the way. That’s why we shouldn’t have an arbitrary deadline for Wednesday,” Portman said. “We should present the legislation when it is ready.”

“Unless Senator Schumer doesn’t want this to happen, you need a little more time to get it right,” Cassidy said in a Fox News interview on Sunday.

TICK OF THE CLOCK

The wave of last-minute negotiations threatened to spark another dramatic week on Capitol Hill, where Schumer sought to steer the Senate toward passing an infrastructure proposal in the few weeks before lawmakers left for their recess. ‘summer. Schumer had promised to put the chamber on that schedule for weeks, but his decision nonetheless left little room for error in a Capitol not known to act swiftly.

In recent days, many Republicans have said they may be unwilling to support a vote to start the infrastructure reform debate in the absence of a final deal or clear legislation. In doing so, their interim demands illustrated the difficult task the two parties face in building a two-party coalition of 60 votes in the tightly divided chamber.

“I think we’re going to move quickly, but we’re not going to vote on something until we actually have a bill,” said Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of his principals. negotiators, before leaving Capitol Hill last week.

Even as they negotiate with Republicans over infrastructure, Democrats have chosen to seek out a second package themselves that aims to strengthen federal safety net programs, tackle climate change, and expand Medicare coverage. .

Schumer described the two efforts as part of an intertwined “two-way” process that must evolve in tandem, as many Democrats are unwilling to pass an infrastructure bill without additional spending on their preferred priorities. Party lawmakers plan to avoid the GOP’s expected opposition to the budget deal through a process called reconciliation, which will allow them to approve it with a similar majority, rather than the 60 votes typically required in the Senate. . To that end, Schumer has given his caucus its own Wednesday deadline to meet on this proposal as well.

“Everyone has had productive conversations and it’s important to keep the two-way process going,” Schumer said Thursday in the hours before leaving the room for the week. “All parties involved in the bipartisan talks on the infrastructure bill must now finalize their agreement so that the Senate can start considering this legislation next week.”

Information for this article was provided by Tony Romm of the Washington Post.