I 118THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 360 To ensure that employees of the Internal Revenue Service are brought back to their offices until the backlog of 2020 tax returns has been eliminated. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY13, 2023 Mr. M EUSERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To ensure that employees of the Internal Revenue Service are brought back to their offices until the backlog of 2020 tax returns has been eliminated. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Require Employees 4 To Uniformly Return Now Act’’ or the ‘‘RETURN Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. BRINGING IRS EMPLOYEES BACK TO THE OFFICE. 6 (a) I NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-7 sion of law, in the case of an applicable employee, such 8 employee shall not be authorized to telework during the 9 period— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:21 Jan 26, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H360.IH H360 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 360 IH (1) beginning on the date that is 5 business 1 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and 2 (2) ending on the date on which the Commis-3 sioner of Internal Revenue certifies that the proc-4 essing backlog with respect to income tax returns for 5 taxable year 2020 has been eliminated. 6 (b) D EFINITIONS.—In this section— 7 (1) A PPLICABLE EMPLOYEE .—The term ‘‘appli-8 cable employee’’ means an employee of the Internal 9 Revenue Service who, as of the date of enactment of 10 this Act, is authorized to telework, on a temporary 11 or permanent basis, pursuant to a policy established 12 by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in re-13 sponse to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID– 14 19). 15 (2) T ELEWORK.—The term ‘‘telework’’ has the 16 same meaning given such term under section 17 6501(3) of title 5, United States Code. 18 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON OBLIGATION OF FUNDS UNTIL IRS 19 BACKLOG IS ELIMINATED. 20 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Sec-21 retary of the Treasury (or the Secretary’s delegate) may 22 not obligate the funds appropriated to the Internal Rev-23 enue Service under section 10301 of the Inflation Reduc-24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:21 Jan 26, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H360.IH H360 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 360 IH tion Act (Public Law 117–169) until the date described 1 in section 2(a)(2). 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:21 Jan 26, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H360.IH H360 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS