{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://estes.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3221", "Rep. Estes Joins Ways and Means Republicans to Prevent Weaponization of the IRS", "2021-10-19", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "House", "KS", "Ron Estes", "E000298", "estes.house.gov", "estes", "https://estes.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas) and all House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have introduced H.R.5586 \u2013 the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act \u2013 to counter proposed legislation that weaponizes the IRS against American citizens. The current Democrat proposal gives the IRS new power to spy on Americans\u2019 private bank information with as little as $600.\n\n\u201cThis Democrat legislation that the Biden administration supports will allow the IRS to spy on bank accounts with as little as $600,\u201d said Rep. Estes. \u201cThis is an invasive overreach of the federal government to track every penny you earn and spend. This bill from Ways and Means Republicans will give taxpayers the protections they need.\u201d\n\nRep. Estes and his colleagues also penned a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing privacy concerns over President Biden\u2019s proposal to surveil Americans' private bank transactions.\n\n\u201cWe are skeptical of the need for this dangerous expansion of IRS oversight into the daily lives of Americans, have reason to believe the true targets are farmers, families, and small businesses, and question the IRS\u2019s capacity to protect this unprecedented amount of personal banking information,\u201d the members wrote.\n\nMembers also pressed Secretary Yellen to address several unanswered questions clarifying that the IRS will not seek transactional-level data on personal and business bank accounts. Click here to read the full letter.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://estes.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3221"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1488391794264317, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}