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So, whose side are you on? The President, or the Republicans? And why is Government Executive the only publication reporting on this:
"While the White House is hoping to bring on thousands of additional customer service representatives to answer the 100 million phone calls IRS receives every year and attend to taxpayers who frequent in-person assistance facilities, House Republicans have so far rejected that vision.
The caucus has fought for the last several years to dramatically reduce the IRS workforce after President Biden ushered in a hiring spree using a surge of funding provided in the Inflation Reduction Act. The Trump administration has successfully pushed 25,000 employees out of the agency, but now is warning of dire consequences if it does not hire a significant portion of them back.
The Trump administration in its fiscal 2026 budget proposal requested a 31% funding increase for the IRS’ Taxpayer Services division to hire 11,000 employees, a nearly 50% staffing increase. It warned that without such an investment, IRS would see its level of service to taxpayers seeking assistance drop from 85% during the 2025 tax filing season to just 16% in 2026. IRS significantly staffed up its customer service representative force over the last few years using funding from the IRA.
The Fiscal 2026 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, which sets funding levels for IRS, would keep funding for Taxpayer Services flat at $2.8 billion, ignoring the $853 million boost Trump requested."
