Federal funding shortfall to IRS threatens US sanctions enforcement on Russian oligarchs
CNN
A funding shortfall in the latest Ukraine aid package could affect the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigations unit that tracks the luxury yachts, apartments and other hidden assets of Russia's elite, raising the possibility that the US enforcement of sanctions might have some gaps or pull resources from other priorities.
The Biden administration's efforts to secure emergency funding for the Treasury Department's sanctions efforts were met in full -- except for one. Republicans balked at the request to infuse the IRS investigations unit (IRS-CI) with $30 million, according to people involved in the negotiations. The objection was tied to concern over the agency, which sits under the Treasury umbrella, diverting focus from its core mission.
But it underscored long-standing wariness from GOP lawmakers about boosting the agency's enforcement funding, and general Republican opposition to significant funding boosts for the IRS.
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A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the Charlottesville campus in 2022.
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The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, on the grounds it would not have secured the release of hostages.
A Democratic election official in Pennsylvania offered an impassioned apology Wednesday for claiming “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country” to justify counting about 600 faulty ballots in defiance of state Supreme Court rulings.
On one side of the Capitol, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace vowed to “stand in the way” of Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, the first out transgender woman elected to Congress, using women’s bathrooms in the US Capitol.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Matthew Whitaker, who served as acting attorney general during Trump’s first term, as his pick to be US ambassador to NATO.
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Ensuring the US doesn’t default on its obligations. Extending trillions of dollars in tax cuts before they expire. Quarterbacking President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for the economy.