Billy Long Confirmed as IRS Commissioner of Internal Revenue (6/15/25)

On June 12, 2025, the Senate confirmed President’s Trump’s nomination of Billy Long as Commissioner of Internal Revenue. See Wikipedia, Billy Long, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Long (Last edited 6/15/25 and viewed 6/15/25). I just updated the working draft for the 2025 editions of my Federal Tax Procedure Book. I copy and paste the relevant portion as of 6/15/25 with footnotes (note that the footnote numbers in the working draft, but in the final will certainly be different): 

                   3.     Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

           The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is a Presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. The Commissioner heads the vast IRS bureaucracy. n216 Historically, the Commissioner has been a leading tax practitioner, most often a tax lawyer. Because of the perception that tax practitioners may not be the best managers, the statute now requires that the Commissioner have “demonstrated ability in management.”n217 Tax practitioners are not necessarily excluded, but the field is much broader now.
   n216 § 7803.
   n217 § 7803(a)(1)(A).

          On June 12, 2025, the Senate confirmed President Trump’s choice for Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The nomination and confirmation were controversial because (i) the confirmation was preceded by chaos among the acting IRS leadership,n218 and (ii), more importantly, Long has no or no credible experience in either tax or management experience.n219 Nevertheless, he is the Commissioner now. n220
   n218  Political Thrashing Around Acting Commissioners and Commissioner of Internal Revenue (Federal Tax Procedure Blog 4/18/25; 4/19/25).
   n219 Professionally (if that is the right word), Long was a realtor and auctioneer until serving in the House of Representatives from 2011-2023. Long attended college but did not graduate, subsequently graduating from the Missouri Auction School. In 2023, Long became a “tax consultant” promoting dubious tax claims related to Employee Retention Credits. In that role, he promoted himself as a “Certified Tax & Business Consultant,” a title he earned by attending a three-day course offered by a tax promoter. See Wikipedia, Billy Long, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Long (Last edited 6/15/25 and viewed 6/15/25). JAT Editorial Comment: Long appears to have no relevant qualifications to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue other than sycophancy to President Trump which is the only credential he needed to be approved by the Senate on a party line vote. While awaiting his Senate confirmation, Long served as Senior Advisor in OPM (Office of Management and Budget). It is unclear to me what role he served as Senior Advisor, but I suppose one salient benefit was that, receiving a Government salary, he would have been foreclosed from abusing the tax system as he did before taking the Senior Advisor role. (That is, if he honored conflicts of interest policies, although Trump and his minions appear to have only passing acquaintance, if any, with conflicts of interest policies.)
   n220 Perhaps someone will litigate the issue of whether Long is statutorily disqualified for the position.