{"id":470,"date":"2026-06-16T19:39:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=470"},"modified":"2026-06-16T19:39:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:39:45","slug":"republicans-arent-sure-they-can-block-trumps-irs-audit-exemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=470","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Aren’t Sure They Can Block Trump’s IRS Audit Exemption"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A proposed settlement between the IRS and Donald Trump that would exempt the president, his family and their businesses from tax scrutiny has sparked some concern among congressional Republicans who say they\u2019re not sure they can block it.<\/p>\n

Read more No Time for Small Talk: Vance Tussles With \u2018The View\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The minimal pushback is in sharp contrast to the blowback from lawmakers over another piece of the tax settlement, which would have allowed Trump to create and control a $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund to make payouts to purported victims of government attacks.<\/p>\n

After a revolt among Republican lawmakers, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the Department of Justice would nix the administration\u2019s controversial fund.<\/p>\n

Many Republicans told NOTUS they do have serious concerns about the IRS provision and the president\u2019s ability to settle with his own government in the first place, but they\u2019re not sure they can block it.<\/p>\n

But the ban on the IRS conducting audits into President Donald Trump, his family and their \u201caffiliates\u201d is still on the table. The deal immunizes the Trump family and their businesses from any investigation into their taxes filed before the deal was struck in May and the New York Times previously reported that the deal could free the president from more than $100 million in tax penalties<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Though Republican senators delayed a vote on their party-line spending bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement for two weeks over concerns about the anti-weaponization fund, most haven\u2019t sounded the alarm over the immunity deal.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the sole Republican to oppose the party-line ICE funding package to protest the \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund, said that IRS exemption has given her pause since it was first announced.<\/p>\n

But, Murkowski added, she doesn\u2019t know exactly how Congress could legislate to stop the audit ban either.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we address this?\u201d Murkowski said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there is an opportunity going forward but it is something that I have expressed concerns about. I don\u2019t know whether or not an agreement like this is standard with the IRS or whether it raises issues that the president and his family were treated differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats have pushed back. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to call up a proposal in the Senate on Tuesday to bar the audit exemption that was blocked by Republicans. The Senate Finance Committee also delayed a markup of a bipartisan tax bill over concerns from Democrats about the audit dispute.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who has been an outspoken critic of the settlement, said that he discussed the issue with Blanche in a meeting on Tuesday. After the meeting, Cornyn said he won\u2019t make a decision on whether to vote to confirm Blanche until he is briefed further on the audit provision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a positive meeting, he answered my questions and committed to an additional briefing on the tax audit issue,\u201d Cornyn said of his conversation with Blanche. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to reviewing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) also told NOTUS that he\u2019d be interested in seeing Congress take a look at the provision but emphasized Cornyn\u2019s point that more details are necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of the details on that yet, but it seems very, very broad,\u201d Lankford said,<\/p>\n

Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that there\u2019s confusion among both lawmakers and experts on how to deal with the provision because a settlement between a president and his own federal government is unprecedented.<\/p>\n

Read more TSA Plans to Fly Thousands of Employees to a Four-Hour Training<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strange to have the president of the United States suing the federal government, because that\u2019s sort of like the president is on both sides of that litigation,\u201d Wamhoff said.<\/p>\n

Wamhoff said he\u2019s not sure about how Congress could legislate around the audit ban but suggested it\u2019s something that could be addressed in federal court, giving lawmakers some wiggle room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tax code says that the executive branch cannot influence the IRS over investigations and audits,\u201d Wamhoff said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the timeline on that would be, but it\u2019s possible that it will be taken care of without Congress intervening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who also serves on the Senate Finance committee, shares Wamhoff\u2019s concerns but said he still \u201chas to see what\u2019s possible\u201d out of Congress before he\u2019d advocate for legislation to undo the settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with the former judges who said, was there really somebody in opposition here?\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cYou can\u2019t have somebody on both sides of an appeal who is actually not in opposition. The precedent they quote doesn\u2019t really seem to be a true precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), told NOTUS that he\u2019s also unsure about Congress\u2019 ability to legislate around the audit ban. Congress has to be realistic about what it can reasonably tackle even when lawmakers are opposed to a provision, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t legislate on everything we don\u2019t like \u2026 Certainly, it would be nice to take care of it, but I\u2019m realistic,\u201d Curtis said, adding that senators had to pick \u201cone big thing\u201d to focus on as part of the party-line spending bill.<\/p>\n

Senators critical of the fund would also have to have buy-in from House Republicans in order to pass legislation limiting the scope of the audit ban. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri), who chairs the Ways and Means Committee responsible for writing tax laws, told NOTUS that he opposes Congress passing a bill to allow audits of Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m more concerned with is President Trump has been audited for over ten years before he was president,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe IRS should not be doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Republicans said that the president\u2019s settlement is not important to voters, who are more concerned with issues like safety, homeland security and the cost of living. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) said of the IRS audit.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the party has long prized tax cuts and been critical of the IRS\u2019 powers, including their audit powers. Congressional Republicans were solidly behind Trump\u2019s recent moves to cut tens of thousands of IRS jobs.<\/p>\n

And some Republican senators have shut the door on considering legislation that would limit the scope of the settlement between Trump and the IRS at all.<\/p>\n

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) told NOTUS that the audit ban is no different from presidential pardon power, comparing the measure to former President Joe Biden\u2019s pardon of his son and other members of his family at the end of his term.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny president can pardon themselves and their family members \u2013\u2013 Joe Biden set that precedent,\u201d Lummis said. \u201cIt\u2019s just so futile now that Biden pardoned everybody and set the precedent for future presidents to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Pete Hegseth\u2019s War on Mark Kelly Was a Political Gift<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers have been more focused on the \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund that\u2019s part of a proposed tax case settlement with the president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublicans Aren't Sure They Can Block Trump's IRS Audit Exemption - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=470\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republicans Aren't Sure They Can Block Trump's IRS Audit Exemption - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawmakers have been more focused on the \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund that\u2019s part of a proposed tax case settlement with the president.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=470\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-16T19:39:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Republicans Aren’t Sure They Can Block Trump’s IRS Audit Exemption\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-16T19:39:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470\"},\"wordCount\":1188,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/c264742c15fabcce1e9748ae73195d2b-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Trump White House\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470\",\"name\":\"Republicans Aren't Sure They Can Block Trump's IRS Audit Exemption - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/c264742c15fabcce1e9748ae73195d2b-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-16T19:39:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=470#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/c264742c15fabcce1e9748ae73195d2b-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/c264742c15fabcce1e9748ae73195d2b-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1706,\"caption\":\"President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One, Monday, June 15, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. 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