U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and Congress’s leading member seeking positive tax agency reforms, today celebrated the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Danny Werfel to become the new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“Running the IRS is one of the toughest jobs in government. Mr. Werfel has his work cut out for him and the job ahead will be enormous,” said Rep. Pascrell. “For years under a Trump appointee, the IRS was mired in chaos and failure. Since President Biden announced the prior commissioner would be replaced, we’re finally headed in the right direction. Through investments enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS is answering the phones, the backlog is shrinking and refund checks are going out on time. That has to be an appetizer and not the main course. Americans need to have trust in our tax system. There cannot be one set of rules for the powerful and another set for everyone else. We must have an IRS that provides tax fairness for all Americans and Danny Werfel can lead us in that direction.”

Pascrell was the first member of Congress to demand Trump IRS head Rettig’s dismissal. On July 7, 2022, Pascrell wrote to President Biden again calling for a new IRS Commissioner, which Biden soon heeded.

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight in the 117th Congress, Pascrell was focused on fixing the IRS. On October 26, 2021, Pascrell demanded answers from Commissioner Rettig on systemic mail delays impacting IRS operations, tax filings, and refunds. Pascrell raised alarms on the slow start to the 2021 tax-filing season, and with Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA-01) castigated the IRS’s continually sending out erroneous notices to taxpayers.