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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today called on House members to reject any efforts aimed at further cuts in resources for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and instead to boost this key agency’s budget.

In a letter to House members, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said “members of Congress are keenly aware of the importance of efficient and effective implementation of the tax laws Congress enacts.”

To that end, she said, the fiscal 2015 IRS budget advanced by the House Financial Services and General Government Committee would take a serious step backward by cutting IRS funding by $341 million below current levels. The House is likely to take up the Financial Services appropriations bill in a late night session today.

Budget cuts over the past few years have resulted in the loss of 10,000 IRS employees, with direct consequences for taxpayers seeking to meet their tax obligations, President Kelley said.

That impact could be seen starkly during the most recent filing season, the NTEU leader added. “Due to the insufficient resources, the IRS was only able to answer ‘basic’ tax law questions over the phone and in person, and ceased helping prepare tax returns for taxpayers seeking its help, including non-English speakers, low income and elderly taxpayers,” she said.

While the agency’s customer service efforts have suffered, its enforcement work likewise has felt the impact of reduced budgets. “Funding reductions have impaired the IRS’s capacity to collect revenue that is critical to reducing the federal deficit,” she wrote to House members.

The longer term decline in enforcement revenue proves the point. In fiscal 2012, IRS enforcement activities brought in roughly $50.2 billion—but that was down from the high of $59.2 billion in fiscal 2007. That $9 billion reduction has coincided with a continuing decline in key enforcement personnel staffing.

There were 7,400 fewer permanent enforcement personnel in fiscal 2013 than in fiscal 2010, Kelley told lawmakers, including some 3,000 fewer of the revenue agents and revenue officers who are central to IRS enforcement efforts.

Both have interactions with taxpayers. Revenue agents perform audits of returns from a variety of taxpayers, including individuals, businesses and other entities. Revenue officers focus on tax debt collection and frequently work out of their offices on tax debt matters. The IRS has warned that under the insufficient level of funding for fiscal 2014, the number of audits will decline by an estimated 100,000 and the number of collective activities will fall by an estimated 190,000.

“In the past few years,” Kelley wrote, many experts in the tax community, including the National Taxpayer Advocate, IRS Oversight Board and the IRS Advisory Council have all warned of the dangers of underfunding the IRS…and have urged Congress to provide it with sufficient funding.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.