{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-colleagues-blast-trump-administration-for-making-it-harder-for-taxpayers-to-receive-full-refund", "Hirono, Colleagues Blast Trump Administration for Making it Harder for Taxpayers to Receive Full Refund", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Mazie K. Hirono", "H001042", "www.hirono.senate.gov", "hirono", "https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Lawmakers: \u201cTAS ensures the American people have a voice within the IRS. [\u2026] We are concerned that the recent personnel cuts at TAS and the ongoing hiring freeze will greatly hinder these advocates' ability to provide quality, timely service to taxpayers who need help.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) joined Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and 22 colleagues in urging the Trump Administration to help Americans get their full refund by restoring staff and resources at the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), which is an office within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that helps taxpayers resolve any issues within the IRS.\n\nAt its current staffing level, TAS may face significant challenges handling its current caseload and helping taxpayers in Hawaii and across the country. The senators are urging Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent to stop hiring freezes, reduction-in-force efforts, and properly staff TAS.\n\n\u201cTAS ensures the American people have a voice within the IRS [\u2026] We are concerned that the recent personnel cuts at TAS and the ongoing hiring freeze will greatly hinder these advocates' ability to provide quality, timely service to taxpayers who need help,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\n\u201cSince January, the Trump Administration's deferred resignation programs and efforts to reduce the federal workforce have resulted in nearly one in four TAS advocates departing the IRS [\u2026] According to the National Taxpayer Advocates FY2026 Report to Congress, these losses of IRS customer service personnel have created \"vulnerabilities in service delivery\u2026and taxpayer assistance.\" We are concerned that the rapid decrease in staff will increase remaining advocate\u2019s case load and taxpayers\u2019 wait times for service,\u201d the senators continued.\n\nTAS is an independent organization within the IRS and is considered the voice of the taxpayer at the IRS. TAS helps taxpayers with financial issues with tax refunds, filings, and other problems.\n\n\u201cAccording to the January 20, 2025, Presidential Memorandum, the IRS hiring freeze will remain in place until the Secretary of the Treasury determines that ending it is in the \"national interest,\u201d the lawmakers concluded. \u201cWe expect you agree with us that ensuring Americans can access their full tax benefits in a timely manner falls squarely within the \u201cnational interest.\u201d\u201d\n\nIn addition to Senators Hirono, Wyden, and Warnock, the letter was signed by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (D-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).\n\nThe full text of the letter is available here and below.\n\nDear Secretary Bessent,\n\nWe write to urge you to lift the freeze on hiring additional staff at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and ensure that both the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) have enough staff to ensure they meet the needs of the American taxpayers.\n\nDedicated TAS advocates resolve over 230,000 taxpayer issues with the IRS every year.[1] From helping a disabled first responder receive their refund[2] to resolving a decade-long problem with a taxpayer\u2019s railroad worker\u2019s retirement tax that was holding up his refund,[3] TAS ensures the American people have a voice within the IRS.\n\nAlthough we understand there may be some isolated instances of hiring for internal positions at TAS, we are concerned that the recent personnel cuts at TAS[4] and the ongoing hiring freeze[5] will greatly hinder these advocates\u2019 ability to provide quality, timely service to taxpayers who need help. Moreover, the IRS operating divisions need enough employees to be able to implement TAS\u2019s requests for their assistance in resolving taxpayer problems.[6]\n\nSince January, the Trump Administration\u2019s deferred resignation programs and efforts to reduce the federal workforce have resulted in nearly one in four TAS advocates departing the IRS.[7] To further compound staffing issues, the Trump Administration\u2019s freeze[8] on hiring additional personnel across the IRS remains in place, making it impossible to appropriately backfill TAS staff at the levels needed to address the workload.\n\nAccording to the National Taxpayer Advocates FY2026 Report to Congress, these losses of IRS customer service personnel have created \u201cvulnerabilities in service delivery . . . and taxpayer assistance.\u201d[9] We are concerned that the rapid decrease in staff will increase remaining advocates\u2019 caseloads and taxpayers\u2019 wait times for service.\n\nOur Congressional casework teams are already seeing delays in responses and case resolution. For example, in January, a taxpayer in Georgia reached out to TAS about an issue with a tax return. Despite submitting the correct paperwork in a timely manner and multiple inquiries from Congressional caseworkers, the most recent update as of December was that the case was still being processed. This is too long for a taxpayer to wait for answers.\n\nMany IRS employees who accepted deferred resignation offers were required to stay to support the 2025 tax filing season,[10] so we have not seen the full detrimental effects of the staffing cuts. If these shortages are not addressed, the repercussions will likely be felt during the 2026 tax season.[11]\n\nAccording to the January 20, 2025 Presidential Memorandum, the IRS hiring freeze will remain in place until the Secretary of the Treasury determines that hiring additional IRS employees, including TAS caseworkers, is in the \u201cnational interest.\u201d[12] The complex nature of TAS\u2019s work demands an intense training process[13] and requires current advocates to limit their existing casework to assist.[14] With significant changes to the tax code for this upcoming filing season,[15] hiring for TAS position must begin as soon as possible.\n\nWe expect you agree with us that ensuring Americans can access their full tax benefits in a timely manner falls squarely within the \u201cnational interest.\u201d We urge you to immediately lift the IRS hiring freeze and to respond to the questions below by January 23, 2026, to provide additional clarity to the American people regarding IRS administration and service:\n\nWhat criteria are you using to evaluate what is in the \u201cnational interest\u201d with respect to the TAS hiring freeze? Do these criteria include case backlogs, current wait times, demand on caseworkers, and increased complexity due to new tax laws? If not, why?\n\nWhat is the current average caseload of tax advocates?\n\nWhat is the average wait time for tax advocates to resolve taxpayers\u2019 cases?\n\nAt the end of the last filing season victims of identity theft had to wait 20 months to resolve their cases, on average.[16] What is a reasonable wait time for taxpayers to receive assistance on issues like late tax returns or identity fraud from TAS? What is the current wait time for these cases, and what is the IRS doing to reduce it?\n\nIf TAS is unable to meet its casework demands or if the IRS is unable to process all of TAS\u2019s requests for operational assistance, what cases will be prioritized? Which taxpayers will have longer to wait to have their problems resolved?\n\nThank you for your attention to this important matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-colleagues-blast-trump-administration-for-making-it-harder-for-taxpayers-to-receive-full-refund"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.843560952693224, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}