Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is no longer serving as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the tax agency said Friday.
Bessent's term as acting commissioner of the IRS "under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act has expired, and he has not served in that capacity since that time," the IRS said in a statement.
The IRS "continues to operate without interruption," the agency said, with CEO Frank Bisignano "successfully leading day-to-day operations and reporting directly to the Secretary."
The news comes on the heels of a March 9 letter from Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to Bessent stating that Bessent's term had expired March 6 and that the IRS entered the 2026 tax filing season without Senate-confirmed leadership.
"The position of IRS CEO is a fake job that Congress has never authorized," the senators wrote.
"Congress vested responsibility for administering the tax laws in a single Commissioner," they wrote. "The administration is ignoring or evading these requirements."
Since Aug. 8, 2025, when President Donald Trump removed Commissioner Billy Long, "the IRS has operated without a confirmed Commissioner," the senators continued.
"During that time, the Secretary of the Treasury has served as Acting Commissioner while simultaneously holding another Cabinet office, and a newly invented 'chief executive officer' has assumed day-to-day control of the agency," the senators said.
"There is no reason to see the Trump administration's appointment of a CEO as anything more than a strategy to avoid the vetting and confirmation process for a replacement commissioner," according to the senators.
They asked Bessent to answer a series of questions by April 6, including why Trump has failed to submit a nomination for IRS Commissioner since the vacancy arose last August, "and when will a nomination be transmitted to the Senate?"
Bessent named Bisignano, who is also the commissioner of the Social Security Administration, to the newly created CEO role after seven IRS commissioners left the top job in 2025.
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