A former congressman who once supported eliminating the IRS has just been confirmed as the agency’s new leader.
Billy Long, the former Republican congressman from Missouri, was confirmed by the Senate in a 53-44 vote to become the next IRS Commissioner. He now takes the reins of an agency in chaos—staffing cuts, internal meltdowns, and looming disaster for the 2026 tax filing season.”
Democrats are already having meltdowns over the fact that Long used to work for a firm that helped push pandemic-era tax breaks—and that he received campaign donations after President Donald Trump nominated him. But Long didn’t flinch. He sat before the Senate Finance Committee and flatly denied any wrongdoing tied to those credits.
Meanwhile, the IRS itself is undergoing a full-blown transformation. Tens of thousands of employees are retiring or being laid off. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, a legitimate agency, faced accusations of mishandling sensitive taxpayer data, which further complicated the situation. Now, unions and left-wing groups are suing to stop DOGE from even accessing that information.
Before Long got the job, the IRS had churned through four acting commissioners. One resigned after a secret deal to share immigrants’ tax data with ICE. Another acting commissioner sparked a battle between Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It’s been one leadership disaster after another.
After leaving Congress and an unsuccessful U.S. Senate run, Long worked with a firm that helped distribute the tax credit for employee retention—a program later shut down when former Commissioner Daniel Werfel labeled it fraudulent. Now Democrats are demanding an investigation, claiming some firms misled investors into spending millions on bogus credits.
Despite the scandal, Long remained unwavering.
According to the AP, “Ahead of the confirmation vote, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles blasting the requisite FBI background check conducted on Long as a political appointee as inadequate.”
Wyden didn’t hold back. “These issues were not adequately investigated,” he wrote. “In fact, the FBI’s investigation, a process dictated by the White House, seemed designed to avoid substantively addressing any of these concerning public reports. It’s almost as if the FBI is unable to read the newspaper.”
In April, the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service stepped down after disagreeing with the decision to share tax data on illegal immigrants with federal law enforcement.
Commissioner Melanie Krause became the third IRS leader to leave the agency since the start of the year. The agency has been turbulent because left-wing ideologues have decided to follow their political leanings rather than their pledge to serve as non-partisan government employees.
Her resignation came after the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security finalized an agreement allowing taxpayer data to be shared with federal immigration authorities to assist in locating undocumented immigrants.
According to the Washington Post, officials from the Treasury Department, under which the IRS operates, had largely sidelined Krause recently as they pushed to grant immigration authorities access to private taxpayer information, likely because they knew she would oppose the agreement.
“Melanie Krause has been leading the IRS through a time of extraordinary change,” a Treasury spokesperson said in an emailed statement confirming her resignation.
Without mentioning the data agreement, the spokesperson noted further that the agency was “in the midst of breaking down data silos that for too long have stood in the way of identifying waste, fraud, and abuse and bringing criminals to justice.”