Yakym Blasts Biden IRS for Millions in Nonresident Alien Payments

<p><strong>WASHINGTON, D.C.</strong>&nbsp; –&nbsp; Today, Congressman Rudy Yakym (IN-02) called out the Biden-era IRS during a Ways and Means Committee hearing with current IRS Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano, highlighting nearly $450 million in improper payments the agency sent to ineligible recipients, including nonresident aliens, in the final weeks of the Biden administration.</p>

<p>&#8220;Nearly $450 million in taxpayer dollars are gone, handed out by the Biden IRS to nonresident aliens and other ineligible recipients,” <strong>Rep. Yakym said.</strong> “They call that going the extra mile; I call it a disgrace. Hoosiers work too hard for their money to watch it get handed out like this. Rooting out this kind of waste, fraud, and abuse is exactly what I was sent to Washington to do, and while the Biden administration may be gone, the accountability is not.&#8221;</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-1768" height="576" src="https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/yakym.house.gov/uploads/2026/03/0304-1000-Committee-on-Ways-and-Means-119019-1_03_25-pm-2026-03-04-1024x576.jpg" width="1024" /></figure>

<p class="has-text-align-center">Watch Rep. Yakym’s remarks <a href="https://youtu.be/dWlHKvumjbg">HERE.</a></p>

<p><strong><u>Background:</u></strong></p>

<p>According to a new <a href="https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/2026-02/2026406007fr.pdf">Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report,</a> in December 2024, just weeks before the Trump Administration took office, the Biden-era IRS quietly pushed out American Rescue Plan stimulus checks to 1.2 million people who had gone unclaimed for over three years.</p>

<p>Then-IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel justified the move, saying the agency had reviewed internal data and concluded that &#8220;one million taxpayers overlooked claiming this complex credit when they were actually eligible,&#8221; so the IRS decided to pay them out automatically.</p>

<p>&#8220;These payments are an example of our commitment to go the extra mile for taxpayers,&#8221; Werfel said.</p>

<p>However, a quarter of those recipients were not actually eligible.</p>

<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>$317 million went to nonresident aliens</li>

<li>$117 million went to individuals who had already received a check</li>
</ul>

<p>In total, 301,000 improper payments totaling nearly $450 million in taxpayer dollars were sent to ineligible recipients. To date, the IRS has recovered only 29,000 of them. </p>

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<p>The post <a href="https://yakym.house.gov/posts/yakym-blasts-biden-irs-for-millions-in-nonresident-alien-payments">Yakym Blasts Biden IRS for Millions in Nonresident Alien Payments</a> appeared first on <a href="https://yakym.house.gov">Rudy Yakym</a>.</p>