Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has concluded a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the agency retracted its planned enforcement of a policy change that would have significantly disrupted Texas's child support system.
In May 2023, Attorney General Paxton initiated legal action to halt an Enforcement Announcement from the IRS. This announcement would have severely restricted child support enforcement agencies' ability to use contractor support services. After facilitating the use of contracted services for over a decade, the IRS abruptly reversed its position without notice and required child support programs to terminate contractor access to essential data for program administration. Compliance with this directive would have critically impaired the operations of Texas's child support program, which provides crucial financial support services to children in Texas.
Following Paxton’s lawsuit, Texas submitted a plan to the IRS demonstrating that ongoing system upgrades would adequately address the agency's concerns. The IRS subsequently issued a letter indicating it would not take action against Texas due to these technology upgrades. In response, the Office of the Attorney General filed a notice of voluntary dismissal but reserved the right to resume litigation if similar efforts by the Biden Administration interfere with Texas’s child support system in the future.
“Because we intervened early, Texas’s child support program will not be derailed by the Biden Administration’s unlawful agency action,” said Attorney General Paxton. “We reached a positive outcome, but I will not hesitate to resume this litigation if IRS policy changes put Texas children at risk once again.”
To read the filing, click here.