Washington (AP) – The former US representative Billy Long from Missouri was confirmed on Thursday to lead the Internal Revenue Service, which gave the oppressed agency, which he once after months of the acting leaders and massive personnel cuts that have derived the tax registration season of the next year, throwing off a indefinite commissioner.
The Senate confirmed for a long time with 53-44 votes, although Democrats ‘concerns about the republicans’ former work for a company that made a tax capacity of the pandemic pandemic in Coronavirus Pandemic and campaign contributions that he had received after President Donald Trump had appointed him as IRS Commissioner.
During his time in the congress, where he worked from 2011 to 2023, Long -spoons laws sponsored to get rid of the IRS, the agency with which he is now commissioned. As a former auctioneer, there is no background information in tax administration for a long time.
Long will take over an IRS that undergo massively, including layoffs and voluntary retirement from tens of thousands of workers and allegations that the then Trump consultant Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has abused sensitive tax payer data. Unions and representative organizations have sued to block Doge’s access to the information.
The IRS was one of the best profiled agencies that were still confirmed without a Senate guide. When confirmed by Long, the IRS mixed by four acting guides, including one who resigned via a contract between the IRS and the Ministry of Homeland Security in order to share the tax data of the immigrants with immigration and customs authorities and another whose appointment led to a fight between Musk and Finance Minister Scott Bessent.
After the congress had completed an unsuccessful offer for the US Senate, he worked for a long time with a company that distributed the tax credit for employee loyalty from the pandemic. This tax credit program was finally closed after the then commissioner Daniel Werfel found that it was fraudulent.
The Democrats called for a criminal investigation of Long’s connections to other alleged tax credit gaps. Legislators claim that law firms associated with long -cheated investors to spend millions of dollars to buy fraudulent tax credits.
Long appeared before the Senate finance committee in the last month and denied any misconduct in connection with his participation in the tax credit.
Before the confirmation vote, the democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Sussie Wiles, who was carried out by the required FBI background check, which was long carried out as a political representative.
“These problems were not adequately examined,” Wyden wrote. “In fact, the investigation of the FBI, a process dictated by the White House, seemed to avoid that it is about combating a content of one of these public reports. It is almost as if the FBI cannot read the newspaper.”
Democratic legislators have also written to Long, and his companies associated with the unusually contemporary contributions to the Senate of Long 2022 from Long 2022 shortly after Trump nominated him.
The IRS faces an insecure future. Tax experts have expressed concerns that the registration season 2026 could be hindered by the departure of so many tax survey workers. In April, the Associated Press reported that the IRS was planning to shorten up to 20,000 employees – up to 25% of the workforce. An IRS representative confirmed on Thursday that the IRS had shed over so many workers, but the cuts were approximately the same number of IRS jobs added as part of the bid administration.
The fate of the direct file program, which developed free submission system for electronic tax returns during the democratic administration of President Joe Biden, is also unclear. Republican legislators and business preparation companies for commercial tax had complained that it was a waste of tax money, since there are already free registration programs, although they are tough to employ. During his confirmation hearing, Long said that it would be one of the first programs to be raised for discussion if he was confirmed.
Long is not the only Trump representative who supports an agency whose administration became the agency he assigned.
Linda McMahon, the current education secretary, has repeatedly said that she was trying to get out of a job by closing the federal department and transferring her work to the States. Rick Perry, Trump’s energetic secretary in his first term, called for the abolition of the Energy Ministry during his offer for the nomination of the GOP president in 2012.
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Follow the reporting on the Internal Revenue Service by AP at https://apnews.com/hub/internal-revenue-service.
