The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Beverly Hills tax lawyer Charles Rettig as commissioner of the IRS, installing a nominee who pledged to rebuild trust in the tax agency.
The upper chamber voted 64 to 33 to confirm Rettig to run the agency through 2022.
Rettig will take over from Trump Treasury official David Kautter, who has been running the IRS on an interim basis since the departure last fall of John Koskinen, an Obama appointee who was despised by Republicans.
In confirmation hearings, Rettig said that his overriding goal would be to restore confidence in the IRS, which has for years been the objection of conservative suspicion and faced significant budget cuts.
Under scrutiny from Democrats, Rettig also maintained during his hearings that he would act independently and wouldn’t allow himself to be pressured by President Trump.
Nevertheless, his progress through the Senate has been overshadowed by controversies over Trump’s own tax reforms and allegations that Trump might be compromised by Russia or other outside actors. Also, Democrats used the occasion of his nomination to demonstrate their objection to an unrelated IRS action carried out by Kautter to allow some political nonprofits to report less information about donors to the IRS.
“The Trump administration has weaponized the tax code to punish its political adversaries and benefit shadowy far-right groups that seek to buy elections,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday evening.
Substantively, Rettig will be tasked with implementing the new tax law passed by Republicans and signed into law by Trump in December. The IRS was afforded a modest increase in funding this spring to help with implementing the major overhaul of the tax code.
