Warren, Wyden, Schumer Warn Bessent’s Term as Acting IRS Commissioner Has Expired, Blast Trump Administration’s Failure to Put Nominee Forward Amid Chaos at IRS

Warren, Wyden, Schumer Warn Bessent's Term as Acting IRS Commissioner Has Expired, Blast Trump Administration's Failure to Put Nominee Forward Amid Chaos at IRS

Bessent's Legally-Permitted Term as Acting Commissioner Expired on March 6th

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned that the 210-day window under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to serve as Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner expired on March 6 and blasted the Trump administration for failing to put forward a nominee for commissioner.

"The position of IRS CEO is a fake job that Congress has never authorized," wrote the senators. "There is no reason to see the Trump administration's appointment of a CEO as anything more than a strategy to avoid the vetting and confirmation process for a replacement commissioner."

Following President Trump's removal of former IRS Commissioner Billy Long, the IRS has operated without a confirmed Commissioner. Instead, Bessent has served as Acting Commissioner while simultaneously holding another Cabinet office, and a newly invented "chief executive officer" has assumed day-to-day control of the agency.

In a letter to Bessent and Dan Scavino, Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, the senators noted that the agency has had seven commissioners or acting commissioners since early 2025, most of the IRS's 28 "top official" positions were either vacant or filled by acting officials as of late last year, and the position of IRS "chief executive officer" is a fake job designed to sidestep the Senate's vetting and confirmation process.

The senators also noted that Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy Kenneth Kies has been serving as acting IRS chief counsel since November, and his legally permitted term of service in that role expires in June.

"Although the IRS is supposed to be nonpartisan, the only two Senate-confirmed positions at the IRS continue to be held 'temporarily' by Treasury officials who have political jobs," wrote the senators.

"The Acting IRS Commissioner cannot function indefinitely on temporary authority and borrowed time," continued the senators.

The senators sent a list of questions, including further information on the authorities of the Acting Commissioner and an update on President Trump's nomination for IRS Commissioner, demanding a response to their questions by April 6, 2026.

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