(Editor’s Note: The following column was submitted by Rep. Tom Emmer.)

As the leaves and the temperature continue to fall in Minnesota, I’m headed back to Washington this week to defend the interests of the Sixth Congressional District. Stay tuned on Twitter for updates!  

One area of concern we’ve heard about from constituents throughout the Sixth District is with the Biden Administration’s plan to expand IRS’s collection of your bank and/or credit union account information. Last week, I led a letter with more than 200 of my colleagues pushing back against this overreach, in addition to fighting for increased oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and opposed Washington D.C.’s overreach of Minnesota’s land and natural resources. 

Protecting Your Privacy from the IRS 

Since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, they have doubled down on their efforts to expand the reach of the IRS despite repeated examples of abuse and mismanagement. You may remember earlier this year when ProPublica released a series of stories based on illegally obtained taxpayer information. It’s no secret that the IRS’s track record when it comes to protecting your information is suspect, at best. Nevertheless, House Democrats and the Biden Administration are proposing to give the IRS more financial information about the American people.

Last month, I, along with 140 of my colleagues in the House, expressed our concern with the Biden Administration’s proposal to require financial institutions and third-party providers to report a range of new data points on accounts with annual gross inflows and outflows totaling more than $600 to the IRS. The Treasury Department responded to our letter attempting to justify their actions as an effort to “close the tax gap,” but they failed to address the privacy implications associated with an entity like the IRS gaining access to new information about millions of Americans. Instead, the Administration suggested it will increase the threshold from $600, to $10,000.

The Administration clearly doesn’t understand why so many Americans are concerned with this proposal. Even with the increased threshold, the data of tens of millions of Americans will still be sent to the IRS. To that end, if the threshold was increased to $50,000, workers who make $18/hour and pay basic living expenses on an annual basis will still qualify.

So, 201 of my colleagues joined me in sending another letter to Secretary Yellen last week, reasserting our concerns and urging the Administration to jettison this ridiculous proposal.

Bottom line: Democrats have resorted to digging around in the bank accounts of working families looking for additional taxes to account for their out-of-touch agenda. You deserve to keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket and the government should never spy on your transaction history. 

Ensuring CFPB Accountability

As many of you know, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created following passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. The CFPB was given the power to regulate dozens of industries, including auto lenders, credit unions, community banks, student loan servicers, and more.

In its short time as a new regulator, the CFPB has placed burden after burden on the financial services industry, making it harder for the American consumers they are obligated to protect to access the financial products and services they need to thrive.

Yesterday, I introduced the CFPB Whistleblower Incentives and Protection Act to create a whistleblower program at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Whistleblowers have proven to be an effective means of exposing conduct within the CFPB that does not serve the American consumer. This legislation encourages whistleblower reporting by offering compensation and protection to whistleblowers, similar to what is done with other federal agencies and departments.

This common-sense fix would ensure that we fairly reward whistleblowers while also keeping our focus on being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Our efforts to reform the CFPB should put the American consumer first, and this legislation does that.

Last week, I also joined the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry to send a letter to the Inspector General (IG) for the CFPB Mark Bialek. We demanded the IG turn over any findings from his investigation into reports of CFPB career staff being improperly pushed out due to their political affiliations, which would violate federal