The Real Price of Trump’s Anti-Consumer Policies: $18 Billion and Climbing
Corruption Watch: Trump Pardons Binance Founder Amid $2B Trump Family-Binance Crypto Partnership
Watchdog: Accountable.US Releases New Research Investigations on Trump’s Latest Judicial Nominees
Trump Investment in Argentina is a Gift to Conservative Ally, US Billionaires
Watchdog: Senate Republicans Just Gave Trump a Greenlight to Use Sham “Energy Emergency” for Giveaways to Big Oil & Gas, Cutting Clean Energy Jobs and Hurting Already Struggling Families Across the Country
Site Menu

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today’s Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing to consider former Congressman Billy Long for Trump IRS Commissioner should be an “awkward” one for Republican members of the Committee who have previously staked stern positions against pandemic aid fraudsters, an Accountable.US review found. 

At Issue: After Long left Congress in 2023, he “quickly set out to make money” and began enrolling businesses in the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), a pandemic-era tax credit that became a “magnet for fraud” that has cost the federal government billions of dollars. Long disclosed earnings over $247,000 from referral and consulting fees related to the ERTC, including income from a company selling tax credits that the Treasury department “says doesn’t exist.” More troubling, after his IRS nomination, Long’s $130,000 debt owed to his failed 2022 U.S. Senate campaign was suddenly paid off by donors whose firms have “significant, often contentious business” before the IRS.

Ahead of today’s hearing, government watchdog Accountable.US found that every single Republican Senate Finance Committee member likely to support Long’s nomination has been vocal about pandemic relief fraud or has co-sponsored legislation to remedy the issue. This includes Chairman Crapo, who said fraudulent ERTC claims were “clogging” the IRS, co-introduced a bill to “combat fraud” in pandemic Unemployment Insurance (UI), introduced the “Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act,” and wrote a column calling COVID UI fraud “the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in history.”

“

If Senate Finance Republican concerns over Employee Retention Tax Credit fraud were ever serious, now’s their chance to prove it by pressing Trump’s IRS pick on whether all his clients who gobbled up taxpayer pandemic aid truly deserved it. There’s zero chance someone like Billy Long, who devoted his time in Congress trying to protect wealthy tax cheats and then went into a line of business notorious for tax fraud, will run the IRS with integrity. But Billy Long would fit in perfectly with President Trump’s team of walking conflicts of interest, more interested in serving themselves and wealthy donors than working people.” 

Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk

Previously from Accountable.US:

###

back to top