House Republicans push to defund Kamala Harris’ office, IRS in key spending bill

House Republicans are clamoring to defund a wide array of Biden administration offices, attaching several amendments to do just that to a government funding bill set to be considered this week. 

The House is expected to take up the Financial Services and General Government fiscal year 2024 appropriations, which lays out funding for the Treasury and executive office of the president, among other sections. 

And for the House GOP majority, it’s also a vehicle to force the Biden administration’s hand on key progressive policy points.

An amendment submitted by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., is aimed at halting funds toward Vice President Kamala Harris’ office. 

Multiple amendments that were offered targeted funding toward the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, while another by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., proposed reducing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel’s salary to $1. 

Two Offices of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (ODEIA) within the Biden administration are the subject of cost-cutting GOP proposals. An amendment proposed by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., specified defunding the Treasury’s ODEIA, and a similar amendment by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., hit the Office of Personnel Management.

An amendment submitted by freshman Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., would stop funding to the Treasury’s Climate Hub, an office responsible for helping the department form and coordinate its strategy around climate change. 

House Republicans have pledged to pass 12 individual spending bills, each targeting a narrow part of the federal government, to fund U.S. priorities in fiscal year 2024. 

The previous fiscal year ended on Sept. 30. Unable to strike a deal in time, Congress passed a short-term funding extension ending on Nov. 17. 

But while many GOP lawmakers see the spending bills as an opportunity to further conservative policy goals, many of those same initiatives have been dubbed non-starters in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The White House has issued veto threats for several of the House GOP’s spending bills already.