Rep. Smith opposes federal agency 'slush funds'

Federal agencies should not be able to spend “slush funds” however they see fit, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, said Thursday.

The House earlier this week passed Smith’s bill to rein in the Internal Revenue Service by a vote of 245 to 179.

The bill now goes to the Senate. But even if it passes the Senate, President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the legislation.

Such a threat “means it is a great piece of legislation,” Smith told about 30 members of the Southeast Missouri Pachyderm Club at Dexter Bar-B-Que in Cape Girardeau.

The IRS currently collects almost $500 million annually in user fees and has been spending that money without congressional approval, he said. Smith said he favors abolishing the IRS, but such a step won’t happen without a Republican in the White House.

While the GOP controls the Senate, it has only a slight majority. Legislation often dies in the Senate because 60 votes are needed to proceed with bills.

“The Senate needs to have up or down votes,” he said, arguing the fate of legislation should be determined by simple majority rule rather than a super majority.

Smith told the GOP club Congress over the years has delegated too much authority to federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.

He decried the current divisions in the Republican Party, insisting Republicans often are “more passionate in fighting one another than in getting things done.”

Smith added, “We have to get behind whoever the GOP nominee is.”

Republicans, he said, need to work together to elect a conservative president and “not spend so much time beating each other up.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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