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H.R. 7959119th CongressTaxation
IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act
Sponsored by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) · 5 active : 4 Republicans, 1 Democrat
Latest action: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Where it standsPassed House, now in the Senate11 senators score as swing votes
Passed House
- House: passedApr 27, 2026
- Senate: next
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govIRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act
This bill modifies provisions of the Internal Revenue Code relating to whistleblower awards and protections.
Specifically, the bill
revises the standard for review of whistleblower awards in the Tax Court to require a
de novo
review (rather than the current abuse of discretion review) based on the administrative record established at the time of the whistleblower award determination and any new or previously unavailable evidence,
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allows whistleblowers anonymity in proceedings before the Tax Court (unless a societal interest in disclosing a whistleblower's identity outweighs potential harm to the whistleblower),
modifies the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower report to require inclusion of a list and description of up to 10 of the top tax avoidance schemes disclosed by whistleblowers, and
requires payment of interest on mandatory whistleblower awards if the IRS fails to provide timely notice to a whistleblower of an award recommendation.
The bill also allows payments of the attorney fees of whistleblowers to be deducted when calculating adjusted gross income for tax purposes regardless of whether the whistleblower award was paid through the mandatory or the discretionary whistleblower award program. (Under current law, the deduction is limited to attorney fees paid in connection with mandatory awards.)
Committees and subjects
Committees
- House Committee on Ways and Means · HouseReported by · Markup by · Referred to
- Senate Committee on Finance · SenateReferred to
Subjects
- Administrative remedies
- Congressional oversight
- Department of the Treasury
- Executive agency funding and structure
- Government studies and investigations
- Interest, dividends, interest rates
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Judicial review and appeals
- Legal fees and court costs
- Right of privacy
- Specialized courts
- Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Model
Directional: count only breaks toward the other partyWhy do scores change?v3default (selected)v2 model swing-v2
How the Senate breaks down
- 11Swing 70–100
- 64Middle 30–70
- 25Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v3, directional: only movement toward the other party counts, so members who sit further from the center than their party no longer score as swing votes.
Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, , and the . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
5 activeShow all 5 cosponsors
- Mike Thompson (D-CA-4)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE-3)
- Carol D. Miller (R-WV-1)
- Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-1)
- Vern Buchanan (R-FL-16)
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
