IRS chief Frank Bisignano may have misled Congress, Democrats say

A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren has alleged that Internal Revenue Service chief Frank Bisignano may have lied to Congress about personnel problems, as the tax agency enters a hiring race after making deep staff cuts at the start of the Trump administration. A letter sent late Wednesday and shared privately via CNBC.

Bisignano, who is also the commissioner of the Social Security Administration, testified before Congress in March that he was “feeling it.”[s] Good in terms of number of employees [he] “Right now it’s with the IRS,” he said. He also denied before the Senate Finance Committee in April that his agency was understaffed.

But Warren, D-Mass. and other Democrats said in the letter that Bisignano’s statement does not square with recent news that the IRS is aggressively hiring. They also note that the agency’s own inspector general has stated that staffing shortages are a major concern for the agency, and also point to an internal memo reported by the Agency. NOTES requesting expedited hiring authority due to “ongoing staffing shortages.” [that] It puts the 2026 Filing Season at risk.”

“New reports show that the IRS understands the need for more agency personnel, despite your public claims to the contrary,” Democrats wrote in the letter. he wrote. “This discrepancy requires an explanation. Under federal law, persons who ‘knowingly and willfully make… materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or representations’ to Congress may be subject to penalties.”

More than a dozen Democrats signed the letter, including Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, DI, Peter Welch, D-Vt. and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. He was also among those who signed the letter.

Knowingly lying or misleading Congress may be a crime.

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter is the latest headache for Bisignano, who was forced to play defense earlier this week. Wall StreetJournal reported spying on former colleagues JPMorgan Chase. The IRS chief has denied a report that said he used his security clearance to eavesdrop on colleagues’ communications and access sensitive information.

In his current role, Bisignano heads agencies that hold vast amounts of classified information on nearly every American.

This also follows last year’s massive federal government layoffs led by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. As of January 2026, the IRS alone had hemorrhaged more than 31,000 employees, according to a report from the agency. inspector generalA gap that Bisignano says is being filled by the adoption of new technologies.

The IRS IG said in a June report that staffing shortages contributed to delays in the agency’s work.

“We also know that many of the departing employees are experienced workers with institutional knowledge and technical expertise that cannot be easily replaced,” the IG said in the report. he said. “In our 2026 Filing Season memorandum to the IRS Commissioner, we warned that the IRS faces high operational risks for the season due to staffing shortages, delayed hiring, and significant backlogs. For example, significant inventories awaiting processing (such as amended tax returns and taxpayer correspondence) have increased significantly.”

Warren and her colleagues demanded that Bisignano disclose whether reports that the IRS was seeking special hiring authority were true and whether he was aware of the internal memo seeking authorization and whether he read it before his testimony to Congress.

They also asked him to explain to Congress his reasoning for telling Congress that “the IRS has ‘no staffing shortage’ but also sought hiring authority due to ‘critical hiring need.'”