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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) urged lawmakers to reject a spending proposal unveiled today, saying it would inflict “damaging cuts” on the Internal Revenue Service and make it even harder for the IRS to fulfill its core mission.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government released a draft of its fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget proposal ahead of Thursday’s markup, providing $10.1 billion for the IRS next year—$838 million less than the current level.

“Slashing the IRS budget by almost $840 million below the current level and $2.8 billion below the President’s request will further degrade its already impaired ability to provide taxpayers with the assistance they need and fairly enforce the tax laws enacted by Congress,” National President Colleen M. Kelley wrote in a letter to the members of the financial services subcommittee.

The NTEU leader wrote the union is particularly concerned about the adverse impact that the additional cuts would have on the IRS’ efforts to combat identity theft and other types of fraud. And, she said, the cuts would lead to “billions in foregone revenue.”

Under the proposal, IRS enforcement programs would get $538 million less than they do currently and the agency’s operations support and Business Systems Modernization programs would be slashed by $338 million and $40 million, respectively.

While the bill would shift $75 million from other IRS programs to try to cover improvements in customer service levels, identity theft refund fraud and correspondence-related response times, the nominal increase is woefully adequate.

The Obama Administration requested a $101 million increase for identity theft-related tax fraud alone and a $252 million increase for taxpayer services.

“This past filing season, the IRS was unable to answer almost 60 percent of taxpayer calls and people waited for hours in lines at walk-in centers across the country,” the NTEU president said.

In her letter, Kelley said that Congress has cut IRS funding by almost $1.2 billion, or 17 percent when adjusted for inflation, since FY 2010. As a result, the IRS has had to reduce its full- and part-time workforce by more than 18,000 across every state, including letting go of employees responsible for helping taxpayers victimized by the growing threat of identity theft and collecting revenue to pay for other vital priorities such as strengthening national security and reducing the federal deficit.

The NTEU leader noted that the National Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS Oversight Board, the IRS Advisory Council, the Government Accountability Office, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and others have warned that chronic IRS budget cuts are hurting the agency’s ability to serve taxpayers and enforce tax laws adequately.

“IRS employees around the country are committed to continue to work diligently despite seeing their workloads increase and the resources to do their jobs shrink dramatically. These additional proposed cuts simply cannot be absorbed without further impairing IRS’ ability to provide critical taxpayer services and enforce the nation’s tax laws,” she wrote.

NTEU, the nation’s largest independent federal union, represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.