Lawmakers have written a letter to President Donald Trump educating him on how staff reductions at the Internal Revenue Service would likely delay tax refunds for the 2024 tax season.
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined colleagues in warning the Trump administration and IRS leadership that staffing reductions as a result of Trump’s hiring freeze and potential layoffs would also likely harm taxpayer service and undermine law enforcement efforts.
The senators urged the administration to end the IRS hiring freeze immediately, avoid further staffing cuts and protect the Criminal Investigation division that plays a key role in combating drug and human trafficking, terrorism and sanctions evasion.
“Americans need the IRS to be fully staffed with employees who can answer their questions, process their returns, send refunds, and keep IRS systems online and functional. It is nearly inevitable that this hiring freeze, compounded by layoffs and further reductions in staff mandated as a result of Elon Musk’s unprecedented power grab, will delay refunds and degrade taxpayer service. Millions of Americans plan their budgets around timely refunds every filing season. These reckless decisions on the part of Elon Musk and the Trump Administration will likely cause serious financial hardship for people across the country,” the senators wrote.
The lawmakers defended the IRS Criminal Investigation as “the forefront of federal law enforcement efforts to investigate fentanyl trafficking by cartels, human trafficking, terrorism financing and sanctions evasion. For example, CI was the lead investigative agency in the largest international fentanyl/opioid seizure in U.S. history. This operation took down a massive drug trafficking operation and seized 864 kg of drugs, including an astounding 64kg of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced opioids, enough to kill thousands of people. CI was also responsible for the dismantling of several large fentanyl trafficking networks operated by the Sinaloa cartel, including a collaboration with Chinese money laundering organizations. An indefinite hiring freeze at CI would endanger both public safety and national security by directly hampering multi-agency efforts to pursue and dismantle these highly dangerous criminal networks.”
The letter was signed by Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden of Oregon, and U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Peter Welch of Vermont.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia responded to the reported firing of thousands of federal employees at the IRS. He serves on the House Ways and Means Tax Subcommittee and represents a Northern Virginia district containing one of the largest concentrations of federal employees in the U.S. House.
Beyer released resources for federal employees last week. He highlighted a recent hearing exchange in which a tax law expert testified that unauthorized access of sharing of taxpayers’ personal information held by the IRS could be a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, with a statute of limitations that could run past the Trump presidency.
“Purging thousands of IRS workers in the middle of tax filing season is another act of plain corruption designed to benefit Musk, Trump and their wealthy friends,” Beyer said.
According to Beyer, the IRS layoffs appear to affect tax enforcement on the wealthy.
“This will cost the government billions of dollars in lost revenue, while making our tax enforcement less fair and weakening customer service for the American people. Musk and Trump clearly have no interest in reform or deficit reduction, they just want to break the government so that no one can stop them from gaining more wealth and power.”
Beyer said that no one should ignore the fact that Musk and Trump are laying off IRS staff in the middle of the fax filing season and is risking “plunging our tax system into chaos.”
“These and tens of thousands more conscientious civil servants who have been fired are being punished simply for doing their jobs and serving the country. These firings are likely illegal, and make the federal government less responsive to the American people. This is stupid, destructive and corrupt,” Beyer said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
