Responding to a proposed cut of $236 million from the House Appropriations Committee 2017 budget earmarked for the IRS, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Wednesday blamed Republicans for a lack of commitment to federal cybersecurity, according to The Hill.
"Republicans keep slashing agency budgets...and pretending that these actions have no negative repercussions," said the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The IRS, which has been hit recently with headline-making data breaches, received a budget increase in 2016 to assist in cybersecurity and identity theft services, but its cybersecurity staff has been reduced over the last four years by 11 percent.
Cummings advocated for a bill – introduced in April by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) – that would allocate $3.1 billion to create an Information Technology Modernization Fund, meant to modernize government networks so as to assist federal agencies in improving defenses against foreign hackers.