Billy Long wants IRS to take ‘clues from private sector’ on IT modernization

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the IRS told Congress on Tuesday that he’d tackle the tax agency’s IT modernization challenges by turning to an evergreen Republican-backed solution: the private sector.

Billy Long, a former GOP congressman from Missouri who once co-sponsored legislation that would have abolished the IRS, told members of the Senate Finance Committee that he’ll approach modernization by looking to “a lot of big companies that deal with more people than the IRS does” that “seem to be able to pull off things seamlessly with all their IT.”

“I think we need to take the clues from private sector,” said Long, an auctioneer by trade. “I think that we need to look at what private sector is doing and run the government a little bit more that way.”

When Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., asked if he’d commit to developing a comprehensive modernization plan that “prioritizes customer service, identifies critical technology infrastructure needs and ensures greater transparency and audit practices,” Long said that he would, and that he wanted “to be held accountable on all of this.”

“We need to use a lot of things that other businesses are using to do things more effectively than the IRS,” Long said earlier.

The hearing was light on technical specifics. The phrase “artificial intelligence” wasn’t mentioned once during the two-and-a-half hour session, though the emerging technology has come up frequently in reporting about the Trump administration’s plans for the IRS amid drastic workforce cuts across the agency.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told House lawmakers earlier this month that “smarter IT, through this AI boom” would fill in some gaps created by staff reductions, specifically for tax collection. More than 11,000 IRS positions had been eliminated as of March, with another 40% in staff cuts expected. 

Former high-ranking IRS executives have told FedScoop that DOGE-instituted workforce reductions are likely to hinder innovation at the tax agency and reverse efficiency gains. The IT side of the house has suffered significant blows: 50 IT executives were placed on administrative leave in late March and the IRS’s chief information officer stepped down in April.

Another former IRS IT executive told FedScoop on Tuesday that they suspect Long’s private-sector musings referred to a greater embrace of AI and automation, specifically to “accomplish many tasks that deal with collection and refunds.”

“There can definitely be some efficiencies, but also some challenges,” the source added. “Tax code is very complex and if AI bias is introduced, it can be damaging to taxpayers and the system.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., noted that the IRS already has a long-term IT modernization plan in place, with “some congressional funding available to help push it forward.” 

“I hope you will look at that plan, because I think we need to implement it much more rapidly than they are,” she said. “But there is a plan in place, and I just want to make you aware of that.”

Whatever IT route Long chooses will likely be informed by Sam Corcos, a DOGE acolyte who has spoken publicly about IRS modernization and recently took over as the Treasury Department’s CIO.

A Long look at Direct File?

Sources told FedScoop and the Associated Press last month that the Trump administration had decided to eliminate Direct File, but Senate Finance Republicans poured a bit more dirt on the free electronic filing service’s grave Tuesday.

“I was going to ask you [about the] Direct File program,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said to Long. “I hope you’re OK with us killing that; we should have never had it. There are free filing programs out there. Direct File needs to go away.”

A 2022 Government Accountability Office report found that fewer than 3% of taxpayers use the IRS’s Free File, a program run by the tax agency and a consortium of tax preparation companies. The highly lucrative tax preparation industry has lobbied extensively for decades against the creation of free and easy government filing tools.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Long that “there are a lot of us that think” Direct File “should be shut down, because there are plenty of free programs that are out there that people can file their tax, and so many people feel like this is overly intrusive into their personal information to use Direct File.”

Long said Direct File’s future is “one of the hottest topics” at the IRS, and it will be “one of the first things” he looks at if he’s confirmed as commissioner. 

“I know there’s people on both sides that have different opinions on Direct File,” he said. “I want to get to the bottom of it and see what is best for the hard-working employee partners that I will have at the IRS, if I’m confirmed, and the taxpayers, what’s best for those two groups.”

House Republicans’ budget reconciliation package, meanwhile, calls for the “termination” of Direct File within 30 days of the bill’s enactment.