Billy Long grilled over donations, tax credits in Senate confirmation hearing

By Jason Hancock

Missouri Independent 

Former Missouri Congressman Billy Long denied any wrongdoing Tuesday regarding his ties to companies accused of selling fraudulent tax credits and downplayed donations from executives at those companies that he used to pay off a personal loan.

Long, who worked as an auctioneer before serving six terms representing a Southwest Missouri congressional district, told a U.S. Senate committee debating his nomination to lead the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday that he did not seek donations to repay himself money he lent his political campaign.

 

“You know as well as I do that anytime you’re dealing with the (Federal Elections Commission), you have to follow FEC guidelines,” Long told members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. “And that’s exactly what I did all the way through.”

Democrats on the committee were not convinced.

“You expect us to believe that the money just fell out of the sky and it showed up in your campaign treasury?” said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon.

In December, Trump nominated Long to lead the IRS. At the time, Long’s campaign committee from his unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate had $130,000 in debt — money that Long had loaned the campaign himself.

A month later, his campaign committee raised $137,000, with much of the money coming from executives at the companies accused of selling fraudulent tax credits.

Wyden later said his staff had obtained recordings of business associates of Long saying they expect to get favors from him once he is in office. The recordings were later provided to the investigative news organization The Lever.

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, pressed Long about $65,000 he allegedly received before being nominated for his involvement promoting the fake tax credits for the companies Capital Edge Strategies and White River.

“Knowing that (the credits) are illegal, the IRS has said they’re illegal, how do you stand here before this committee and tell the chairman just a few minutes ago that you have no conflict of interest?” Cortez Masto asked.

Long replied that he’s in compliance with the Office of Government Ethics regarding his nomination and that he “did not have any perception whatsoever that these (credits) did not exist.”

White River said in a statement that Long made an “insignificant amount of referrals of these credits to third parties” for the company, and that no federal agency has ever told it the credits are invalid. Long on Tuesday denied he’d ever met or interacted with anyone at White River and claimed he had only referred the credits to a few friends.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who sent Long a 14-page letter questioning his past, repeatedly asked Long about a federal statute prohibiting the president from ordering tax audits on specific people or businesses.

“Is it illegal for the president to instruct the IRS to remove nonprofit status from taxpayers?” Warren asked several times.

“In the first place, he wouldn’t do that,” Long replied.

“That’s not my question, Mr. Long,” Warren said.

A few seconds of back and forth later, Long said he was “going to follow the law,” but that “I’d have to go to the lawyers at the IRS to tell me.”

Warren wasn’t impressed.

“If you think follow the law is you get to make it up on the spot,” she said, “then you don’t get to be the IRS commissioner.”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, continued the line of questioning later, pressing Long over whether he had previously said he would ignore an order from Trump to audit a taxpayer.

“I think I told you that he wouldn’t do that in the first place,” Long responded, “but if he did, I’d do exactly what you said. So, yes.”

Senate Republicans on the panel questioned Long on how he can improve customer service for taxpayers. U.S. Sen. Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, said the agency is “behind the curve” on technology and that its customer service issues are “out of hand.”

“If confirmed, will you commit to developing a comprehensive IRS modernization plan that prioritizes customer service, identifies critical technology infrastructure needs and ensures greater transparency and audit practices? Yes or no?” Young asked.







“Yes,” Long replied.

“Excellent,” Young said.

In his opening statement, Long vowed to make long-needed changes at the agency if confirmed to be the next IRS commissioner. And if he isn’t ultimately confirmed, he’ll gladly head back to Missouri.

“I have the opportunity to make real transformational change to an agency that needs it more than any other federal agency,” he said. “Or I can go back home to southwest Missouri where the fish are biting and as they say, they ain’t going to catch themselves.”

States Newsroom’s Ashley Murray contributed to this story.