WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has eliminated former U.S. Rep. Billy Lengthy as IRS commissioner lower than two months after his affirmation, a White Home official stated Friday.
The official, who was not approved to talk publicly, spoke on situation of anonymity. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will function performing commissioner, the official stated. Lengthy will as a substitute function ambassador to Iceland, Lengthy stated in a press release on the social media web site X.
“It’s a honor to serve my good friend President Trump and I’m excited to tackle my new position because the ambassador to Iceland. I’m thrilled to reply his name to service and deeply dedicated to advancing his daring agenda. Thrilling occasions forward!” Lengthy stated.
The Senate confirmed Lengthy on a 53-44 vote regardless of Democrats’ considerations concerning the Republican’s previous work for a agency that pitched a fraud-ridden coronavirus pandemic-era tax break and about marketing campaign contributions he obtained after Trump nominated him.
Earlier than Lengthy’s affirmation, the IRS shuffled by means of 4 performing leaders, together with one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Division of Homeland Safety to share immigrants’ tax information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and one other whose appointment led to a battle between former Trump adviser Elon Musk and Bessent.
Lengthy would be the the shortest-tenured IRS commissioner confirmed by the Senate because the place was created in 1862.
His departure additionally comes after the company underwent a collection of large job cuts this 12 months, ushered in by Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity. The Treasury Inspector Common for Tax Administration stories that the company has been minimize down from 103,000 staff in January to 77,000 staff in Might 2025. A lot of the reductions got here from DOGE’s deferred resignation program. The workforce reductions had been a part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the scale of the federal paperwork
Whereas in Congress, the place he served from 2011 to 2023, Lengthy sponsored laws to do away with the IRS. A former auctioneer, Lengthy has no background in tax administration.
After leaving Congress to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Lengthy labored with a agency that distributed the pandemic-era worker retention tax credit score. That tax credit score program was ultimately shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel decided that it was fraudulent.
Democrats known as for a legal investigation into Lengthy’s connections to different alleged tax credit score loopholes. The lawmakers allege that corporations related to Lengthy duped traders into spending hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to buy faux tax credit.
An IRS spokesperson referred The Related Press to the Treasury Division for remark.
