(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) President Joe Biden nominated consulting executive Daniel Werfel to lead the Internal Revenue Service following Congress’s passage of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which will allow for the agency to double in size, the Daily Wire reported.
Current IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig’s term will expire at the end of the week.
Werfel previously served as acting IRS commissioner under former President Barack Obama after two previous commissioners stepped down amid a scandal in which the agency was discovered to have targeted conservative nonprofits leading up to the 2012 election.
“In the wake of an Inspector General report alleging various forms of mismanagement and bias in the determination of tax-exempt status for non-profit organizations, President Obama appointed Werfel to serve as Acting Commissioner of IRS in 2013,” according to a statement from the White House.
“Werfel provided immediate stability to the IRS, effectively responding to numerous Congressional investigations, successfully launching the Affordable Care Act technology that IRS was responsible for, and navigated the IRS through a multi-week government shutdown.”
In his role as the controller of the Office of Management and Budget, Werfel was in charge of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—a law passed to stymie the effects of the 2008 recession.
He has spent the last nine years leading a public sector practice at the Boston Consulting Group.
“Danny’s prior service under both Democratic and Republican administrations, his deep management experience, and his work directing significant transformation efforts, make him uniquely qualified to lead the agency at this critical juncture,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement supporting Biden’s nomination.
The Inflation Reduction Act approved an increase of IRS funding by $80 billion, authorizing the agency to hire 87,000 new employees in 10 years.
The IRS claims that increasing their payroll will decrease wait time for phone calls and in-person visitors. It will also provide an upgrade in technology for agents.
Critics, however, contend that it will empower the agency to go after middle-class taxpayers with costly and time-consuming audits—or worse, lead to a new federal police force to monitor and punish financial crimes.
Immediately after the Inflation Reduction Act passed, the IRS put up a job posting for new agents which specified that applicants are required to “use deadly force” if necessary.
