President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Missouri Rep. Billy Long to be the IRS’s new commissioner.
“I am pleased to announce that former Congressman Billy Long, of the Great State of Missouri, will be appointed to serve as the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday evening. “Billy brings 32 years of experience running his own businesses in Real Estate and, as one of the premier Auctioneers in the Country.’”
Long served as the representative for Missouri’s 7th congressional district from 2011 to 2023 and ran for the Senate to succeed Roy Blunt in 2022, but lost the primary to current Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt.
Trump said in his post that Long has worked as a tax adviser since leaving Congress advising taxpayers how to navigate IRS regulations.
“Taxpayers and the wonderful employees of the IRS will love having Billy at the helm. He is the consummate ‘people person,’ well respected on both sides of the aisle,” Trump said.
Trump’s announcement means that he intends to fire current IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, as Republicans also contemplate rescinding as much of the Inflation Reduction Act funding for the agency as possible.
Many of the other IRS’s new initiatives, such as a free tax filing service offered by the agency, may also be in jeopardy under new leadership.
There’s been “a Republican mandate from the people and the voters that we need to rescind as much of that as possible, and I think that will part of this going forward,” said House Ways and Means committee member Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) Wednesday on Republicans’ plans to pass a reconciliation bill.
