Ways and Means chair calls for de-weaponization, overhaul of IRS after ‘lawless’ behavior

FIRST ON FOX: House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith is calling for a complete overhaul of the Internal Revenue System, demanding the agency be de-weaponized, and telling Fox News Digital that “business as usual at the IRS is unacceptable.” 

Smith, R-Mo., wrote a letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell on Thursday, calling for ongoing oversight of the agency to ensure it takes steps to “rebuild trust” with Americans after “lawless and politically motivated behavior.” 

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“The story of the last two years at the IRS is one of both failure and outright weaponization of the agency driven in part by the Democrats’ decision to prioritize hiring 87,000 new IRS agents to audit working families over providing basic customer services,” Smith told Fox News Digital. “There are too many examples of problems at the IRS to count.” 

Rep. Jason Smith wrote a letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell on Feb. 13, 2025, calling for ongoing oversight of the agency to ensure it takes steps to “rebuild trust” with Americans after “lawless and politically motivated behavior.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In the letter, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, Smith lays out concerns at the agency, including its alleged retaliation against the two IRS whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who brought claims of corruption and preferential treatment for Hunter Biden.

Smith also pointed to the IRS’ support for $80 billion in mandatory funding that prioritized “aggressive audits over customer service,” the “failure to take aggressive action against tax-exempt organizations that have caused antisemitic chaos on college campuses, in American cities, and those that may be supporting terrorism” and more. 

“Aggressive oversight of the IRS continues to be a top priority for the Committee, and the election results made it clear that the American people are looking for accountability,” Smith wrote. “President Trump has shown in his first three weeks that he meant what he said during the presidential campaign.” 

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Smith said the government “has not been working effectively for the American people, and it needs to change.” 

“We will be watching closely to make certain that the IRS timely complies with all laws, executive orders, direction from the secretary of the Treasury, and requests from the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance,” Smith said. 

“Business as usual at the IRS is unacceptable,” Rep. Jason Smith told Fox News Digital. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Smith told Fox News Digital that the agency has “acted outside its authority by refusing to apply the law when it hurts Democrats, like in the case of delaying the unpopular $600 Venmo reporting law, and by promoting Democrat interests without authorization, like when it turned a tiny feasibility study into a massive Direct File program costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.” 

“We know that the IRS has retaliated against the two brave investigators that blew the whistle on preferential treatment for Hunter Biden,” Smith said, pointing to Shapley and Ziegler.

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“Business as usual at the IRS is unacceptable,” Smith told Fox News Digital. “The acting commissioner needs to clean things up quickly to meet the expectations of the committee and the American people have of the agency.”