Mike Kelly

Mr. Speaker, I rise to include in the Record the following essay on behalf of Mr. Dave Jervis:

If a family making $60,000 a year spends $70,000 a year,

they will first use up their savings, then max out their

credit cards, and finally declare bankruptcy. Why should it

be any different with nations? Our Official U.S. Debt is

currently over $40 trillion and our actual U.S. Debt, which

includes Unfunded Mandates like Social Security, Medicare,

Medicaid, etc.--is variously estimated at $100-$200 trillion.

(Incidentally, $4.6 to $7

trillion of that $40T is reportedly linked to Covid-related

expenses like the stimulus payments, lost production,

compliance costs, vaccine costs, etc.)

So--How to judge the effect of even that lower number

($40T) on the Nation's economic health? Let's start by

asking--how much or how big is a trillion dollars? Well, we

can compare it to a million dollars, which is a thousand

dollars a thousand times over. Let's assume that you have

unlimited access to fresh, crispy new U.S. One-Hundred-dollar

bills (Benjamins). How high a stack of fresh, crispy new U.S.

Hundred-dollar bills does it take to make a million dollars?

The answer is 43 inches, about the height of your kitchen

countertop. OK--You continue to have access to unlimited

fresh, crispy new US Hundred-dollar bills--How high a stack

of fresh, crispy new US Hundred-dollar bills does it take to

make a Trillion Dollars? Well, a billion is a thousand

million and a trillion is a thousand billion, so a trillion

is a million millions. That means our 43-inch stack of

Hundred-dollar bills becomes 43 million inches high, which

converts to 678.66 MILES high for a trillion US dollars!

That's an inconceivable amount of money, so let me give you

three ways to help wrap your head around that:

(1) If you take a cross-country commercial airline flight,

you're flying about 6 or 7 miles up--so our trillion-dollar

stack is 100 times higher than your airplane is flying!

Inconceivable!

(2) Let's say you could hitch a ride with Elon, up to the

International Space Station, which orbits the earth at an

altitude of about 250 miles--that would still be only 37% of

the way up our trillion-dollar stack! A little over a third

of the way up . . . . Still inconceivable!

(3) Let's make one more try by going on up to the Hubble

Space Telescope, which orbits the earth at an altitude of 340

miles. That's still only half the way up our stack of US

hundred-dollar bills! So, there you have it, 43 inches versus

nearly 379 miles high! A trillion dollars is an inconceivable

amount of money--and hardly anyone understands that! It's an

insane amount of debt to incur.

Let's next talk about what $39T in debt means in terms of

the size of our US economy. The universally accepted way of

measuring that is to express a nation's debt as a percentage

of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the total

dollar value of all goods and services exchanged in a year's

time in that economy--a fraction/ratio with Debt over GDP.

It's currently 120%-124% in the US.

120% is also generally considered to be the level of

national debt that, if exceeded over time, will lead to major

problems like inflation and the failure of the currency. So,

we here in the US are at an inflection point, where we're now

consciously risking the future of the American Dollar. And

one recent increase in our debt by $1 Trillion--I think it

was from $37T to 38T--took only 71 days. Even the

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) anticipates US National

Debt growing by $2T/year. We are now the family making

$60,000 and spending $70.000 a year; and neither Republicans

nor Democrats seem interested in cutting spending to address

the problem, with one exception--that President Trump and

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are seeking to stave off

inflationary decline by expanding the denominator in that

ratio of National Debt over GDP, by reshoring and

revitalizing industry in America--they deserve credit for

that much.

America has been at or close to 120% in debt once before in

my lifetime--At the end of World War II, the U.S. national

debt-to-GDP ratio peaked at approximately 106% to 120%

(depending on who's holding the yardstick) in 1946, up from

42% in 1941. That massive debt, resulting from over $4

trillion in war spending (in 2026 dollars), was ameliorated/

resolved through a combination of high economic growth and

inflation, which reduced the Debt-over-GDP ratio to 23% by

1974. President Johnson had created much or most of that 23%

when confronted with a spending decision whether to pursue

the Vietnam War or to fund his Great Society domestic

spending programs--he chose Option 3, Doing Both, and federal

spending got out of control again, so that by 1980 Federal

Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker (who is a genuine national

hero), had to raise interest rates to 20% to break the back

of inflation by inducing recession. But unlike today, Volker

was able to do that (with President Reagan's support), in

part because the Debt-to-GDP ratio he needed to address was

relatively low--similar to the 1941 pre-war number of 42%.

Here are some results of that--Mrs. J. and I got a just-

under-12% mortgage in 1979. Local friends got a 15% mortgage

in 1980; and our Ophthalmologist got an 18% mortgage that

same year. And a local car dealer was paying 21.5% in

interest, just to keep vehicles in inventory on his lot. We

sure hated Paul Volcker at the time, but he gave the US 40

years of prosperity with his brave patriotic action.

So how have we gotten back up to a 120% debt level again,

without an existential threat like WWII? The short answer

is--again--government deficit-spending; but what facilitated

that overspending? Let's look more closely at our currency

itself, the US Dollar and its history. After the

Revolutionary War, upon gaining our freedom from Great

Britain, we certainly did NOT want to copy the British Pound

as our currency, so we copied the Spanish Milled Dollar--a

silver coin that was perforated (in slices like a pie) so as

to be divisible into eight bits worth 12 cents each--the

famous Pirate money Apieces of eight. (In fact, up through my

childhood, a US quarter was still called two bits.) And the

BIG thing was that our dollar was to be either composed of,

or completely backed by, precious metals, specifically gold

and silver.

Our US Founding Fathers understood the historically proven

need for a national currency backed by something of Tangible

Value, specifically precious metals; and in the US

Constitution, as part of prohibiting State currencies and

assuring a viable National currency, they specifically

provided in Article 1, Section 10, that, No State shall . . .

make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment

of Debts; . . . Then over time, an unfortunate series of

court decisions that I don't pretend to understand, allowed

President Richard Nixon to take the US Dollar off of what's

called the Gold Standard, such that a paper dollar could no

longer be taken to any bank and exchanged for gold or silver

specie, meaning coins. So how did that happen?

My understanding (and again, I have only a partial

understanding) is that our European WWII Allies had shipped

much or most of their gold holdings (backing their

currencies) to the US for safekeeping during the war, and

that they were over time repatriating that gold to their

custody after the war. But as that gold kept being withdrawn

from our custody, we (the US) apparently became increasingly

concerned (and this is what I don't understand), so that when

French President Charles DeGaulle made a request/demand for

repatriation of French gold, President Richard Nixon closed

the gold window, declining the French request/demand, and in

the process, taking the US Dollar off of the Gold Standard.

Again, that meant that people could no longer take their US

Dollar bills to a bank and redeem them for physical gold.

Maybe it would have drawn down our reserves too much--I

simply don't know. But I DO know what has happened since that

time.

Up until the aftermath of WWII, our US Dollar had always

been exchangeable for precious metals--and that tie to gold

and silver had prevented the US from incurring debt that

could not be repaid, because there had to be enough gold and/

or silver in storage to back that amount of debt. Then on a

Sunday evening, August 15, 1971, spurred by that French

demand, President Nixon, in a televised speech, suspended the

convertibility of the US Dollar for gold. At the time, it was

called the Nixon Shock, and like many government edicts, it

was said to be a temporary thing. But it still stands today,

and August 15, 1971, is now correctly called the day the US

Dollar died. The Dollar died because our government could

then print and spend as many dollars as it wanted, with no

need for it to be backed up by gold and/or silver. A greater

number of dollars chasing the same or similar basket of goods

and services is called inflation; and a national currency

with no tangible backing is called a fiat currency. (As an

aside--fiat dollars are also a major reason the family unit

is struggling in the US, because two incomes were then

needed, such that neither spouse could focus primarily on

household matters and rearing children.)

Since 1850, 52 other nations have attempted to operate with

an unbacked fiat currency, and 51 of the 52 have failed, thus

throwing their populations into poverty. (The 52nd is Japan,

which is a producer nation more than a consumer nation like

the US; but it's just on a slower path to poverty--and we're

even involved now in propping up the unbacked yen with our

unbacked dollars.) The reason for all those currency failures

is that the populace learns that it can vote for itself

largesse (benefits) from the public treasury by simply

pressuring their legislators, who find that their election or

re-election can depend on promising more freebies than their

opponent. That has been the case in the US, to the point

where there is now little to no realistic chance of repaying

our national debt in a normal way--or even a political

appetite for doing so.

I mentioned earlier that the US inflation rate was greatly

accelerated by the Covid debacle. And the US Government's

Consumer Price Index (CPI) is now so completely corrupted and

compromised, as to have no relation to the prices people

actually pay. Up until 1986, the CPI did a reasonably good

job of gauging inflation. But beginning that year, eight (8)

significant changes have been made to the calculation

formula, such that it now greatly understates the actual

inflation rate; and in the last 6 years, especially, it has

wildly underestimated inflation. Several others have

developed alternative CPI indexes that are more accurate,

with the latest being a website called realityindex.co. Using

realityindex.co as a base, Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone

Institute has found that we have experienced a 65% overall

increase of consumer prices from 2019 to 2026 (with groceries

at this writing [June 2026] running at an astounding 8.2%

inflation rate). That 65% number is an incredible loss in

purchasing power, compared to the government CPI, which shows

only a 26% loss in purchasing power over the same time

period. And other competent economic authorities have

confirmed the validity of Tucker's work.

Dean Clancy of Americans for Prosperity reportedly posits

that when we read the Ninth and Tenth Amendments plus the

Obligation-of-Contracts clause (Article 1, sec. 10, cl. 1) of

our US Constitution, we can identify

five monetary policies that are constitutionally requisite in

the US, two of which are pertinent to this discussion:

(1) Only gold and silver coins and currency (banknotes

fully backed by and readily redeemable in specie [gold or

silver coins]) may serve as legal tender; and

(2) Neither the states nor Congress may issue fiat money

notes (bills of credit . . .). One can only hope that his

position on the first item above would be tried in the courts

and found to have merit--and to start the process of

reclaiming our national economic sanity.

So--Back to consumer inflation to close this out--Other

than cutting back on non-essential purchases and being a so-

called smart shopper, what might you do with all this? What

can help your family in a wider framework or sense? Further

inflation/shrinking of the US Dollar is now baked-in (thanks

to government deficit spending), and the result will be the

continued hollowing out of our Middle Class. It's not trite

to say that we must PRAY for America, for our politicians,

and for our upcoming generations. And of course, to impress

upon our elected officials the need for major cost-cutting

action on their part--for openers, how about a Federal

Balanced Budget? I believe that we must walk a deep valley of

stagflation or recession/depression if we are to hand over

this land, as we have known it, to our children and

grandchildren.

And in a narrower financial sense, one other answer is to

own Hard Assets--tangible things you can touch, like land,

buildings, gold, silver, classic cars, some fine art, and

some collectibles or other physical items that would hold

their value through inflationary times. If you can swing the

cost of buying and owning a house or apartment, don't rent

one--a house or a condo is the most common and most-sought-

after Hard Asset owned by Middle Class folks. I've also read

that a top-gun financial expert recently recommended that we

need to scale down from building 2200-to-2400-square-foot

houses and go back to 1200-1400-square-foot houses. And there

are people out there who are researching cheaper-per-square-

foot (modular) housing that would be delivered in pieces by

truck, to reduce the amount of required on-site labor. (Some

of that is already happening.) So that's some of what I'm

seeing and hearing lately, and I hope this has helped you

with some of the background that produced the inflation we're

seeing.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to to include in the Record the following essay on behalf of Mr. Dave Jervis:

Some of the earliest Islamic migration to America was

reportedly sponsored by Henry Ford, who brought workers from

Yemen to Detroit in the 1920s to work in his auto plants.

This in turn gave rise to a now-very-large Islamic community

in Dearborn and other Detroit-area municipalities. Now, 100

years later, the Islamic community there remains an

unassimilated population that stands apart from Western ways

and tradition, which grew out of Christianity. So, it

behooves us to look into the precepts and the practice of

Islam in America. for insights.

Islam was founded in what is modern-day Saudi Arabia by a

man named Mohammad. He was born in 570 AD in Mecca, where he

lived until the year 622, when he and his adherents moved to

Medina, where he lived until the time of his death in 632.

So, Islam basically began in the early 7th Century, by which

time Christianity had spread throughout Europe and North

Africa. Mohammad wrote Islam's holy book, the Koran, over the

course of his lifetime, essentially in two phases--his early

writings in Mecca and his later writings in Medina, all of it

in service to Islam's god, named Allah.

The early days in Mecca found him endeavoring to find

common ground with Christianity--perhaps to even merge the

two faiths. So, his early writings were more positive or

friendly. But Christianity could not do what Mohammad wanted

(meaning for them to honor and worship Allah), so his later

writings became more negative, including 109 to 128

(depending on who's doing the counting) so-called War Verses

in the Koran encouraging violence against those who do not

submit to Islam, calling them infidels. In fact, the word

Islam means submission. One example is the Koran's Suras

(Chapters) 2.193 and 8.40, which say to, make war on them

[the infidels] until idolatry shall cease and God's religion

[Islam] shall reign supreme.

At this point, I should refer you to an excellent book that

I've found to offer valuable insights into the many aspects

of Islam in both theory and practice. The book is entitled

Secrets of the Koran , written by Mr. Don Richardson, a

Christian missionary and pastor/scholar who wanted to learn

the truth about why America was attacked on 9/11/2001 by

Islamic/Muslim combatants. So, he purchased and studied all 7

available English translations of the Koran, and his

scholarship is impeccable. You'll find clear explanation and

reasoning there and learn that while Christianity spreads by

charisma (his word), Islam spreads by conquest. And that

unlike Christianity in America, Islam combines and

constitutes both religion and government, via what is called

Sharia Law, an Islamic legal system that is trying or

mediating or arbitrating (primarily family law) Sharia Court

cases here in America, entirely outside the U.S. legal

system, in conflict with our Rule of Law.

Richardson initially had difficulty reconciling conflicting

verses in the Koran, as the war verses are scattered among

friendlier conflicting verses. So how is one to determine

which conflicting verses take precedence over others?

Richardson reveals a primary key to understanding the Koran--

a legal term probably taught to first-year law students--

ABROGATION--which means that when verses in the Koran

conflict with each other, the verse written later in time

abrogates (meaning that it over-rides or cancels or negates)

any conflicting verse written earlier in time. So, the war

verses of Mohammad's later writings apparently over-ride or

cancel any previous conflicting friendlier verses, whether

written in Mecca or Medina. The war verses also gain

credibility when we consider that Mohammad basically went

rogue in Medina, adopting caravan raiding as his vocation

there. Somewhere between the Koran and subsequent Koran

interpretations by Islamic authorities (writings called the

Sunnah [tradition], which includes Hadith [narratives] and

Sirah [journey]), he also learned that lying and other forms

of deception are acceptable if they are employed in serving

Allah.

Islam has warred against western/Christian-derived thought

consistently through the centuries, taking North Africa and

most of the Middle East, and launching several European

invasions. And, warring against the U.S. from our very

beginnings. Early in our history as an east-coast-only

nation, sending our trading ships to eastern Asia from our

east coast was such a huge effort if done by rounding Cape

Horn and crossing the Pacific, that we instead sent our ships

a much shorter way--across the Atlantic and onward to the

east end of the Mediterranean to meet the overland caravans

that brought Asian silks, spices and other products to trade

there. But our ships had to pass through the narrow Strait of

Gibraltar, where they were spotted and intercepted by Islamic

pirates from the Barbary Coast nations of North Africa

(Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and probably also Egypt),

pirates who would kill or enslave our crews and steal the

ships and their cargoes--maritime caravan-raiding. So, many

of America's earliest naval military ships were built to

escort our U.S. trading vessels and to fight the Barbary

Pirate nations. This was the first U.S. war fought on foreign

soil; and it's enshrined in the Marine Corps hymn, which

includes the lyrics, From the halls of Montezuma to the

shores of Tripoli, with Tripoli now being the capital of

modern-day Libya. Brian Kilmeade of the Fox News Channel has

written a book about that war, entitled, Thomas Jefferson and

the Tripoli Pirates . So now you know where we got the term

Barbarian. The point to be made here is that Islam has warred

against Western thought and Western nations throughout its

history; that war continues today, in various forms.

There is much that could be said about various permitted

practices within Islam, such as Honor Killings, Female

Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child Marriage--and other

distinctives like a woman's testimony being worth one-half of

a man's testimony; or heavenly rewards of endless virgins

available to men who die in the cause of Jihad. We could also

discuss the David Horowitz Freedom Center's 2016 booklet by

Robert Spencer, entitled Subversive Mosques, in which he

cites several studies finding that about three-fourths of the

Islamic Mosques in America were preaching violence against

the USA, which in our legal system may be Sedition. But our

interest in this discussion is in Islam as it relates to, or

impacts, our Nationhood here in the U.S.

Although Islamic war forces practicing Jihad (meaning the

struggle to conquer non-Islamic peoples and lands) were

driven back several times in western Europe over the

centuries, Islam is now successfully positioned and

essentially assured of taking western Europe via what's

called demographics, a form of Soft Jihad meaning simply out-

populating the native residents of the current Western

nations there, all of which have dismally low birth rates

while the Muslims have consistently high birth rates. How did

that come about? Basically, because Europe had turned away

from Christianity as the base on which Western Civilization

was built. As millions of Muslims entered Europe, it became

clear that the lack of cohesive religious identity made it

difficult for the native European host populations to resist

cultural onslaught. European elites raised on a steady diet

of liberal ideology could not formulate a reason to deny

entry to the large influx of migrants; and in many cases,

competed to see who could be more accommodating. Those

immigrants have shown no interest in assimilating into a

culture they believe to be weak and decadent; and the sheer

size of the migration has meant that large ethnic ghettos

could form to protect the new competing beliefs, reportedly

including even no-go zones where even law enforcement dares

not enter. Without Christianity (in the words of Dinesh

D'Souza) to spiritually animate the other aspects of its

cultural identity, Europe has seemed to lose the will to

live, abandoning its fate to a new and energetic population

that will NOT adopt the European way of life. And America is,

to me, on a similar path, though not as far along; and there

are still off-ramps to other paths that we in America can

take, IF we can find the national will to do so.

Before moving along to discuss that national will to do so,

I want to clarify specifically how America could properly

address our Islamic immigration crisis within the context of

the Christian-derived western thought that has successfully

guided our nation to this point. You'll find that the

American Christian church-- and I believe also

the European practicing church (it hasn't entirely died

there)--are following the Christian mandate to minister to

the needs of the stranger among us, and there are many such

ministries now working in international communities here in

the U.S. (one example would be Envision Atlanta). That

ongoing Christian hospitality work must continue and expand,

in order to show the love of Christ to individual immigrants.

But when the influx of illegal immigrants becomes so large

that it threatens to overpower the host nation, I believe the

Christian is called upon to do two seemingly-contradictory

things concurrently--to minister to individual Muslim people,

simply because they are people made in the image of God; and

to simultaneously support the repelling and return (by

military force if necessary) of the great hordes that have

been organized and sent to destroy our nation and culture--

the very cultural infrastructure that allows the Christian to

minister to individual Muslims. It's one of history's more

difficult, yet readily understood, conundrums.

With all that said. now. let's look at the concept of

Nationhood and seek to discern how it may apply to alien

ideologies like Islam. At the outset, let me also commend to

you Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas's April

15, 2026, speech delivered at the University of Texas at

Austin, as a wonderful overview of America's founding

principles, with emphasis on our Declaration of Independence

as the overall framework and guiding principles that we later

enshrined in our U.S. Constitution, to implement those

founding principles. It is a marvelous overview. But onward

now to Nationhood considerations, beginning with a look at

how the positive aspects of nationalism evolved out of

monarchies and other aristocratic and autocratic governance.

The 1880s were a time of great change. The U.S. was

thriving as a self-governing nation with a republican form,

while much of the world--primarily Europe in our case--was in

upheaval as it transitioned from aristocratic rule by

monarchies and other autocratic rule, to self-governance. The

influence of Christianity had been displacing the Divine

Right of Kings with the Rule of Law, meaning that Monarchs

were no longer above the Law, but under it-- they became

subject to the Law just like other people (beginning with the

Magna Carta in 1215). Within this context, an 1880's European

voice emerged to address the definition and meaning of a

Nation. That person was French historian Ernst Renan, who

postulated five possible foundations for what constitutes a

nation--Unity of Religion, Unity of Language, Unity of Race/

Ethnicity, Common Heritage/Lineage, and Geography alone. We

can simplify them to Religion, Language. Race, Lineage and

Geography.

Renan posited that all of these five foundations matter,

and that they combine to uniquely characterize each nation in

some mix that depends on the circumstances of place and

history. So, borders are not merely arbitrary lines on a

map--they mark the edges of civic sovereignty, restraining

states and also containing real people with a unique mix of

experiences, memories, belief systems. aspirations and norms

that are not replicated in that specific mix anywhere else on

the earth. So, when Henry Ford unwittingly brought in Islamic

Yemenis to work in his early car plants, he was laying the

foundation for an Islamic community in the Detroit area that

even after a full century of time still remains an

unassimilated population with a very different unique mix of

Renan's five foundations than what has come to characterize

the United States, starting with Renan's first foundation,

the Unity of Religion. It is a simple fact of life that

Europe is falling to Islam, as have most other previously

Christian nations in the Middle East and the Northern half of

Africa, with the U.S. now well into the same process. In the

absence of a national awakening on the matter, demographics

alone will again be sufficient over time to carry Islam to a

Soft-Jihad victory here in the U.S., where our birth rates

are faIling to mimic Europe's. Europe allowed unfettered

Islamic immigration, in part, out of an assumption that

Western Civilization would be sufficient to absorb the Muslim

settlers, who would adopt European ways and become

westernized. That didn't happen there, and it won't happen

here, based on the very tenets of Islam. America should forgo

the granting of citizenship to populations that cannot or

will not assimilate here; and eliminate illegal practices

like Shariah Law. One related conclusion by Don Richardson

(beginning on page 224 of his book) is a well-reasoned

observation that because the Koran demands Islamic control

over all civil authority and claims the right to replace any

and every Nation's laws with Sharia law, untold millions of

Muslims have perjured themselves. either consciously or

unconsciously, by taking the U.S. Naturalization Oath of

Allegiance to uphold our Constitution, which stands in stark

contrast to Islamic law. He urges an expanded or specialized

loyalty oath for Muslims, which would require every Muslim

applicant for naturalization to declare under oath that he or

she sides with the U.S. Constitution and not the Koran nor

Sharia Law. And even that proposal does not address the

Islamic core principle/doctrine he had identified, of

permitted deception when done in the service of Allah.

Muslim activist podcaster Wajahat Ali (a son of Pakistani

immigrants) openly ridicules our national naivete in allowing

unchecked Islamic immigration. ever since the passage of the

U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which should be

re-examined. He gloats that Islam will one day come to

dominate the U.S., as it is doing in Europe. And he's right,

as things stand now. With that said, though, there are some--

a few--hopeful signs in states like Texas and Florida, which

have recognized the inherent hazards of the growing Islamic

presence in the U.S. There's also now a government effort to

identify interconnected Islamic terrorist-supporting

organizations; a recently formed Congressional Sharia Law

Caucus; and other emerging efforts being made to address the

onslaught of Soft Jihad in America. IF we will remember and

honor the first principles of our founding (things like the

Rule of Law)--principles that have prospered America and

Americans for 250 years--we may yet reduce the magnitude of

our Islamic challenge. May God grant us the wisdom and the

will to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of the IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and counterpart on tax policy, Mr. Thompson. We worked very closely on this. We have a genuine concern that we get this right, so the American people understand that we are not overlooking what is taking place.

Mr. Speaker, I also thank our committee chairman for his recognition of the important role whistleblowers play at the IRS and his support for getting the bill before the House today.

Our tax system depends on voluntary compliance, and that only works when Americans trust that the system is fair and enforced evenly. When bad actors cheat and get away with it, that trust erodes for everyone else who plays by the rules.

The IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act builds on a proven program that delivers results for our taxpayers. Since 2007, the program has recovered more than $7.37 billion in unpaid taxes, narrowing the tax gap and holding bad actors accountable.

This is real money returned to the Treasury that would otherwise have been lost. In many cases, these are complex, high-dollar schemes that would not have been identified without insider information, proving that whistleblowers play an essential role in upholding the integrity of our tax code.

When individuals come forward to expose wrongdoing by tax cheats and fraudsters, they help to ensure our volunteer tax system remains fair for all Americans.

The IRS cannot fully close the tax gap through traditional audits alone. The IRS Whistleblower Program leverages insider knowledge to identify noncompliance that would otherwise have gone undetected.

Whistleblowers help the IRS to target enforcement resources toward high-value cases, improving efficiency and accountability across the system. This program directs those resources toward the highest-value, highest-probability cases, maximizing the impact and improving efficiency. It allows the IRS to focus on those who are actively evading taxes, rather than casting a wide net over the vast majority of Americans who are trying to comply with the law.

Strengthening this program is a commonsense way to increase the return on an investment and recovering more unpaid taxes without expanding broad-based enforcement. Just as important, the program serves as a powerful deterrent, discouraging sophisticated tax evasion before it happens by increasing the likelihood that it would be exposed.

Mr. Speaker, this bill reinforces the program's foundation with targeted, practical updates by ensuring that the U.S. Tax Court can consider all relevant evidence by providing a more favorable standard of review in whistleblower appeals, establishing a presumption of anonymity for whistleblowers to help protect individuals from retaliation, encouraging timely administration from the IRS by requiring the payment of interest on delayed awards, strengthening transparency and oversight by improving reporting to Congress and allowing administrative review of award determinations, and aligning the tax treatment of attorneys' fees for whistleblowers with other whistleblower programs.

These reforms keep the program focused, predictable, and effective, addressing longstanding delays and improving program credibility.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Ways and Means Committee staff on both sides of the aisle for working so hard on this because they did a great job, not just for Mr. Thompson and myself but for all of the taxpayers. The American taxpayers deserve this oversight, and I am glad we are working on it. Mr. Thompson did a great job.

This bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee last month with unanimous support, reflecting broad agreement on the need to strengthen this program. Ensuring a fair shake for all taxpayers is what it comes down to.

I thank the National Whistleblower Center, Empower Oversight, Taxpayers

Against Fraud, the National Taxpayers Union, and other organizations who have spoken out in support of this bill. A strong whistleblower program is essential to a credible tax system, one that rewards honesty, deters misconduct, and holds bad actors accountable.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.