4 Takeaways From Confirmation Hearing of Trump’s IRS Nominee

Billy Long, a former congressman, is being considered to head the IRS at a time when the beleaguered agency is ‘at a crossroads,’ one senator said.

IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long testifies during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance on Capitol Hill on May 20, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Former congressman Billy Long, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the IRS, on May 20 pledged to improve the agency to better serve taxpayers.

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Long said taxpayers have consistently complained about delayed refunds and poor customer service. Those are among the many issues that Long pledged to correct.

As a former congressman who just left office two years ago, Long said he has a detailed understanding of how the IRS and Congress interact—a big advantage over past commissioners.

Despite general agreement that Long is an affable and motivated man, a partisan divide became evident over whether he ought to serve as IRS commissioner.

While Republicans expressed confidence in his ability to reform the agency, Democrats asked pointed questions and raised concerns over Long’s political and business dealings. His hearing was delayed for five months while Democrats investigated; many other Trump nominees have waited two months or less for their hearings.

If confirmed, Long would serve as the IRS’s 51st commissioner; he would fill the position for the remainder of former commissioner Danny Werfel’s term, which expires on Nov. 12, 2027.

Here are highlights of Long’s much-anticipated hearing.

1. Conflicts of Interest Denied

The committee’s ranking member, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said he will vote against Long because of what Wyden called a “questionable array of campaign contributions” involving Long’s failed 2022 Senate run. Long has denied any impropriety. He said he has made all required disclosures to the Office of Government Ethics.

Wyden and other Democrats also questioned Long about two types of tax credits that have drawn controversy: one to encourage investments and development in Native American communities, and one COVID-19 pandemic-era relief program for employers, the Employee Retention Credit. Wyden alleged that Long “raked in” referral fees from companies that got people to apply for tax credits for which they did not qualify, or for programs that did not exist.

Long, who now earns a living as a certified tax and business adviser, said he recommended fewer than 10 close friends and acquaintances to professionals who prepared tax credit applications; those firms paid Long customary referral fees. Further, Long said Wyden had misquoted one of his past statements about tax credit eligibility.

2. Confrontation Over Trump and Harvard

Long and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) engaged in a seven-minute exchange during which Warren repeatedly tried to get the nominee to agree that federal law forbids the president from stripping Harvard University—or another taxpayer—of nonprofit status. Long kept telling Warren that he would follow the law, but the two of them could not agree upon what the law said.

Warren was referring to the Trump administration’s dispute with Harvard. After the university rejected a list of demands to address anti-Semitism and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs, the administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funding. Harvard then sued the government.

Trump has since threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status. The IRS has sole authority to probe and remove an entity’s tax-exempt status. Harvard has said any attempt to strip it of this status would be unlawful.

Warren read aloud part of a law that prohibits people from pressuring the IRS to conduct or end audits or investigations. Long told Warren, “I don’t see the instance you’re talking about in there.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on "The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress," on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 11, 2025. Craig Hudson/Reuters

Previously, a White House spokesman told The Epoch Times that any IRS investigation into Harvard would be conducted independently of the president, and that “investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to” Trump’s public statements about the Harvard matter.

After futile attempts to get Long to agree that Trump had acted illegally, Warren told the nominee, “The fact that you want to sit there and dance around about this tells me that you should not be within 1,000 miles of the directorship of the IRS.”

3. Nominee Pledges New Culture

Long said it pained him to hear that no past commissioner had ever invited a 15-year IRS employee to air his concerns. That anecdote represents a top-down culture that needs to be changed, Long said, promising to arrive 90 minutes before office hours so that employees can share information with him.

The nominee also promised to safeguard against the IRS being “weaponized” for political reasons and pledged to keep taxpayers’ private information secure; several committee members described instances of illegal or inappropriate access. Some senators complained about Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency digging through IRS data and recommending cuts to thousands of IRS jobs at a time when the agency seems unable to keep up with its workload.

Long agreed to investigate concerns with employees and taxpayers.

He also said he would modernize the agency partly based on best practices from the private sector.

“There’s a lot of big companies that deal with more people than the IRS does, and ... they seem to be able to pull off things seamlessly,” he said, noting that government can learn from those companies’ successes as well as their failures.

IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long shakes hands with Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) ahead of his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 20, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

4. Direct Filing to Be Reviewed

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told Long that she and many other congresspeople want to shut down the IRS’s free Direct File tax filing service.

“We’ve had lots of complaints about the Direct File program, and it is something that was put in place without explicit congressional approval,” she said, noting that many feel that Direct File “is overly intrusive into their personal information,” unlike other free tax filing services.

Long agreed that the Direct File program is “one of the hottest topics at the IRS.”

He called it “one of the first things” that he plans to look at, but he said he wants to talk to people on both sides of the controversy before taking a position.

“I want to get to the bottom of it and see what is best for the hardworking employee partners that I will have at the IRS, if I’m confirmed, and the taxpayers,” he said.