Dear ,

I hope you and your family are doing well, and had a happy and blessed Easter and Passover to all who celebrated. I wanted to provide a few updates on my work this past week for the residents of Arizona’s First Congressional District.

New IRS 1099-K Tax Reporting Requirements Will Impose Significant Burden on American Taxpayers

Recently, I joined Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) in sending a letter to the Government Accountability Office expressing our concerns that the IRS may be unprepared to implement Democrats’ new invasive scheme to track Americans’ personal online financial transactions.

The IRS struggles to process its current volume of billions of pieces of information returns under the old reporting requirements that mandated platforms like Venmo and PayPal report a person’s transactions to the IRS if, over the course of the year, the user had more than 200 commercial transactions and made more than $20,000 in payments. Now, if a user’s payments total more than just $600 it will trigger the issuance of a 1099-K report filing with the IRS — a form used by the agency to track business or trade payments and dealings.

This new scheme would increase the paperwork burden by billions of pieces, resulting in additional paperwork and information being submitted both to the IRS and taxpayers. These new requirements will have a significant impact on low- and middle-income Americans, including many working in the gig economy.

2023 Service Academy Fair

The 2023 service academy fair is fast approaching! Students and parents are invited to come learn more about the congressional application process directly from my staff and academy liaison representatives themselves on Saturday, May 6, at Arcadia High School from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Students are encouraged to RSVP at https://schweikert.house.gov/academy-rsvp/.

For additional questions, please refer to the Service Academy Applications page on my website or contact Chelsea Lett, Service Academy Coordinator, in my District Office at (480) 946-2411. 

Meeting With the American Cancer Society and Brain Injury Alliance

I enjoyed meeting with the American Cancer Society and Brain Injury Alliance last week to learn about their advancements in cancer treatments for patients. I’m proud to support legislation that promotes innovation and adopts more advanced treatments in our fight to defeat cancer.

2023 Congressional Art Competition Reminder

The 2023 Congressional Art Competition, An Artistic Discovery, is approaching! High school students residing in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District who are interested in participating must submit their framed artwork with the completed student release forms on Friday, April 21, between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the Scottsdale Artists’ School, located at 3720 North Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ 85251.

All submissions must be made through the student’s high school art teacher and must adhere to the specified rules and regulations. Please contact my District Office at (480) 946-2411 with any questions. See the 2023 Congressional Art Competition page on my website for further instructions on how to submit artwork.

What I’m Reading & Why It Matters

This week, I’m reading an article in The Guardian on Moderna's chief medical officer claiming the pharmaceutical firm is in the process of developing personalized cancer vaccines that will have the ability to "save many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives." This potential breakthrough is a game-changer in modern medicine, and I'm excited to see the wider medical community's progress in developing targeted vaccines over the coming years.

I also want to share with you this article in the Wall Street Journal on Aspen Neuroscience's work to test whether an injection of lab-cultured brain cells created from a person's own cells could reverse the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Thank you for taking the time to read this update on my latest work in Washington, D.C. and Arizona’s First Congressional District! If you have any comments or concerns, I encourage you to reach out to my office.

Sincerely,

David Schweikert