Washington – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) joined Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and the 12 other Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee in demanding answers about the Trump administration’s reported plans to weaponize the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) criminal-investigative division in an attack on the free speech rights of progressive individuals and groups the President sees as opponents. The senators noted that politically motivated interference in the administration of tax law is prohibited under federal law and can result in criminal penalties, including incarceration. They sought to learn who has directed and participated in this IRS weaponization, what changes the Administration intends to make to IRS policy, and what individuals and groups the Administration is targeting as part of this abusive, illegal weaponization scheme.

“Federal law prohibits political interference with the administration of tax laws and bars the President, Vice President, White House staff, and all Cabinet-level officials except for the Attorney General from requesting investigations into specific taxpayers,” the senators wrote. “Any effort to weaponize the IRS against President Trump’s perceived enemies is against the law, an abuse of power, and a threat to the integrity of our democratic institutions. [The IRS] cannot be the President’s political attack dog. You must immediately end all attempts to politicize the agency, including attempts to use the agency to attack Americans with different political views.”

The senators’ letter asked the following of Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent as well as Gary Shapley, deputy chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation division:

1. Describe the exact changes that have been made to the structure and operations of IRS-CI since January 20, 2025, and other planned or anticipated changes, including the timeline for implementation of future changes.
1. Provide copies of all memoranda, briefing material, or other documents describing the changes or implementing the changes.
2. Describe any changes or directions to deviate from Part 9, Criminal Investigations, of the Internal Revenue Manual.
3. Identify all executive-level officials whose approval was or will be required to implement the changes.
4. Identify all officials who were involved in the decision making process, including Treasury and White House officials.
2. Secretary Bessent, is it correct that President Trump directed you to identify financial networks which he says are fomenting political violence?
1. Did he or any of his advisors name any individuals or groups which he believes to be involved in such networks? Please provide a list of any individuals or groups named in this context.
2. If so, provide the criteria, and legal basis for such criteria, which the IRS would use to determine whether a group is “fomenting political violence.”
3. Is it correct that one or more officials have “drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors?”  
1. Please describe the process by which the list was developed, including the identity of all personnel who contributed names to the list and all input provided from the White House and Treasury (excluding the IRS).
2. Provide a list of all “targets” on this list.
3. Provide the criteria being used to determine who should be targeted by this effort.
4. Provide a list of each person involved in development of this list, including, but not limited to, Treasury personnel and any IRS employees that are also acting as staff or advisors to the Treasury Department and vice-versa.
5. It has been reported that a report created by Capital Research Center has been used as a basis for accusing the Open Society Foundations of supporting groups that commit acts of terrorism or extremist violence. However, the president of Capital Research Center, Scott Walter, has acknowledged that his organization’s report made no such conclusion.   Has this report, or any other report produced by the Capital Research Center, been used to identify “targets” for IRS personnel to investigate?
4. Is it true that Mr. Shapley “has told people that he is going to replace Guy Ficco, the chief of the investigative unit, who has been at the agency for decades.”? 
1. If so, who will be involved in this decision? 
2. Have you made—or are you planning to make—any other personnel changes at IRS-CI? Please describe those changes.
5. Is it true that Mr. Shapley is proposing changes to the rules on how IRS criminal probes are conducted including reducing the role of chief counsel attorneys?  If so, describe the proposed changes in detail, including any changes or deviations from the procedures and processes in Part 38, Chief Counsel Directives Manual – Criminal Tax.
6. Have you consulted with career Treasury and/or IRS legal counsel on any changes to IRS-CI, and, if so, please provide the feedback you received including any legal opinions regarding these changes?
7. Please confirm that you will fully cooperate with all investigations of this issue by any member of this Committee, TIGTA, the Treasury Inspector General, and GAO, or other oversight bodies?
8. Secretary Bessent, given that your personal and professional history with George Soros is the source of much of your own personal fortune, will you commit to recusing yourself from any matters related to him or his organizations? 

Full text of the letter is available here.

BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO  IS AVAILABLE HERE

WASHINGTON – At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) pressed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his failure to acknowledge basic facts about the COVID-19 pandemic and raised urgent concerns about the future of community health centers and rural hospitals following the massive Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s Big Ugly Bill.

Warner expressed disbelief that Kennedy, after eight months in office, could not answer how many Americans died from COVID or whether vaccines saved lives.

“Mr. Chairman, the Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn’t know how many Americans died from COVID. He doesn’t know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths. And you are sitting as Secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?” Warner said.

Warner pressed Kennedy to support solutions to improve rural health care, including his legislation to raise the Medicare area wage index to better reimburse rural hospitals, and a bill with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to require safeguards before hospitals can eliminate obstetric services. Kennedy ultimately pledged to work with Warner on both proposals.

“Americans want to get healthier, but they also don’t want their basic health care removed,” Warner concluded, inviting Kennedy to join him at a Virginia community health center to hear directly from patients and providers.

A transcript of their exchange follows.

WARNER: Mr. Secretary, I agree with a lot of my colleagues' statements. I actually had hoped, even though I didn't support you – I thought taking on chronic illnesses was going to be important.

I've got two kids, as we discussed when you met, that have chronic illnesses. I'm not sure that the focus on red dye and seed oils are going to fully solve that problem.

KENNEDY: Of course they won't.

WARNER: I would say this: that seems where your emphasis is.

I want to go back to just, again, some basic facts. Do you accept the fact that a million Americans died from COVID?

KENNEDY: I don't know how many died.

WARNER: You're the Secretary of Health and Human Services. You don't have any idea how many Americans died from COVID?

KENNEDY: I don't think anybody knows that because the… there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC and there were so many –

WARNER: You don't know the answer of how many Americans died from COVID?

This is the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Do you think the vaccine did anything to prevent additional deaths?

KENNEDY: Again, I would like to see the data and talk about the data. I’m not fully –

WARNER: You've had this job for eight months and you don't know the data about whether the vaccine saved lives?

KENNEDY: And that's the problem is that they didn't have the data. The data by the Biden administration is absolutely dismal. It was chaos.

WARNER: Who is politicizing? You're saying the Biden administration politicized all the data? Go back to what Senator Cantwell just said, go to the Trump Surgeon General –

KENNEDY: They fired Dr. Grubb, they fired all the people who questioned the orthodoxy. They fired Dr. Gruber, Dr. Krause.

WARNER: Mr. Chairman, the Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn't know how many Americans died from COVID. He doesn't know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths.

And you are sitting as Secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?

Like, you know, I remember when we went to the hearing with you, I asked you about community health centers. You didn't know what role they play.

I've been visiting community health –  I'm glad you've got to one, I think in April.

I tell you what. What I hear from community health centers, they are terrified, with all due respect to my good friend the chairman, of the Big Awful Bill, because they are going to lose health care across the board. They already live in food deserts. They can't get to a nutritionist because Medicaid doesn't do enough reimbursement.

If you're going to want Americans to get healthier, shouldn't they have access to nutritionists? Should they have access to good science about healthy food?

KENNEDY: Absolutely.

WARNER: Well, then how is that going to happen with the Medicaid cuts that are taking place?

KENNEDY: There are no cuts to Medicaid.

WARNER: Sir, that is an absurd –  there is not a single –  to my Republican colleagues, there's not a single study that does not – and I can tell you, I was in Franklin, Virginia a couple of days ago. The rural hospital is going to close. The hospital system was so afraid they wouldn't even let me have the meeting there, but that rural hospital is going to close.

And they are looking for where those folks are going to go. I mean, you're supposed to be doing health care policy, not being the doctor in residence for all of America. I hope – I can only say, I'm still going to trust my doctor rather than your health advice. And, obviously, Tom Cotton's going to –  who knows who he's going to trust?

But let me – let me go back to policy for a couple – so maybe we can lower the temperature a little bit. I had a bipartisan bill that would be a systemic fix, not a vote-buying mechanism, when Medicaid's getting cut, than what was put in on the rural hospitals. One of the things we could do, Mr. Secretary, is make sure that the folks who work in rural hospitals get an 80 percent reimbursement of what folks get in more urban centers. Would you support that legislation?

KENNEDY: The – are you talking about the area wage index?

WARNER: I'm talking about the area wage index and moving that up to 80 percent so there is, actually, the ability to get rural providers...

KENNEDY: Yeah. President Trump supports that, and we support that.

WARNER: Do you support – do you support – good. So you will work with us to get that passed?

KENNEDY: Yes, Senator. I – I (inaudible)...

WARNER: That will increase costs for both Medicaid and Medicare. So you are committed to that? I appreciate that.

What about, Senator Wyden and I have got a bill – because across America...

KENNEDY: What about what?

WARNER: ... hospitals are shutting down on their ob/gyn services. Try to have a baby – I don't know about all of my other friends' states, but in Southside Virginia, you can't find a hospital. Will you work with us to make sure that before ob/gyn services are taken out of a rural hospital, there has to be a process and procedure?

KENNEDY: I'm happy to work with you on that, Senator, meet with you and – and see if we can work with you on it. I don't know exactly what the issue is.

WARNER: Well, hold it, again. A secretary of health and human services who has said he doesn't know how many people died from COVID, doesn't know if the vaccine saved lives, doesn't understand the issue of ob/gyn...

KENNEDY: I – I didn't know if it saved a mil – (inaudible) if it saved a million lives.

WARNER: Ob/gyn doctors are fleeing rural America because they can't afford it. And with the cuts that are coming up, it's going to be exponentially worse. I would invite you, sir, to come with me to a community health center in Virginia and hear what is on people's minds.

They want to get healthier? Absolutely. Count me in. But they also don't want their basic healthcare removed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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WASHINGTON —Today, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), member of the Senate Finance Committee, released the following statement after the House voted in favor of a $78 billion tax package that would expand the Child Tax Credit and dramatically cut child poverty in the United States: 

“I am encouraged by today’s House passage of a bipartisan tax bill that would lift nearly half a million U.S. children out of poverty. As we saw during the pandemic, expanding the Child Tax Credit is a tried-and-true way to give struggling families a meaningful boost and help put food in the mouths of needy children. Especially now, with tax season around the corner, this legislation could provide near-immediate breathing room for millions of working families who live paycheck to paycheck – but only if the Senate acts quickly. As this bill makes its way to the Senate, I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to deliver for American families.”

This legislation, as passed by the House, would benefit 16 million children in the U.S., lifting as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line in the first year alone and continuing to reduce poverty for the families of about 5 million additional children over time. 

Currently, the Child Tax Credit allows families up to $2,000 in tax credits per child. However, many families – especially poor families who need the program the most – do not make enough to reap the full tax deduction benefit. This bill would expand the Child Tax Credit by allowing families to reap the full credit as long as they continue to meet the minimum income threshold of $2,500 per year. It would also ensure that the Child Tax Credit can keep up with inflation. This legislation would help pick up where the nation left off at the end 2021, when a similar COVID-era expansion of the Child Tax Credit expired. 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine applauded the announcement that all 10 drug manufacturers whose drugs were selected for price negotiation with Medicare have agreed to participate in the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the senators helped pass last year, allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time in history, which will help lower costs for millions of Americans. 

In August, CMS announced the first 10 drugs covered under Medicare Part D—among the costliest for the Medicare program without generic competition—that will be eligible for the program. The drug manufacturers had until October 1 to decide whether to participate in negotiations or face penalties. Nationwide, Medicare enrollees covered under Part D paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2022 for these 10 drugs. In Virginia, Medicare Part D enrollees have more than 193,000 active prescriptions for these 10 medications. 

“Too many Americans aren’t able to afford the medications they need, and that’s why we fought to include a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices,” said the senators. “Today’s announcement that all 10 drug manufacturers will participate in the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug price negotiation program is a positive step towards lowering prescription drug costs for millions of seniors. We’re glad that the program continues to progress and look forward to seeing its full impacts in the years ahead.”

Under the law, CMS will negotiate directly with drug companies, and the first set of negotiated prices will go into effect on January 1, 2026. CMS will then select up to 15 more Part D drugs eligible for negotiation for 2027 and will continue to build on this progress in subsequent years by negotiating prices of more prescription drugs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the drug price negotiation program will lower Medicare spending by $98.5 billion over 10 years.

Warner and Kaine have championed policies to lower the cost of prescription drugs and long fought to allow CMS and to negotiate drug prices for those on Medicare. The senators repeatedly introduced legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate the best price of prescription drugs for seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D. Additionally, Warner, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, helped author the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability (MEPA) Act, bipartisan legislation approved by the Committee in July 2023 to help address rising prescription drug prices by regulating the middlemen who manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers and which included key provisions authored by Warner. 

Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee, previously introduced legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices for Medicare Exchange plans, created under his Medicare-X Choice Act, and the Medicare Part D program. In May 2019, he gave a speech on the Senate floor highlighting stories from Virginians from Martinsville, Norfolk, Arlington, and Virginia Beach who have been hurt by the high cost of prescription drugs and calling for reforms to bring drug prices down. In May 2023, he voted to pass the bipartisan Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act, legislation to lower drug costs, out of the HELP Committee. He has also authored and cosponsored bills to strengthen the pipeline and increase transparency for critical medicines and more efficiently usher drugs to the market by making key improvements to the Food and Drug Administration’s review process for interchangeable biosimilars.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today pushed IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel to accelerate processing the backlog of Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) claims. Commissioner Werfel asserted that the IRS is currently processing 20,000 ERTC claims per week, but after further questioning by Sen. Warner, committed to doubling the rate to 40,000 per week, with priority on the oldest claims.

The ERTC was created in response to COVID-19 to incentivize employers to keep their employees on payroll and off unemployment during the height of the pandemic. Virginia small businesses kept those promises to retain their workforce, but years later, due to IRS processing delays, many are still waiting to receive the tax credits they are due.

Sen. Warner has repeatedly raised this issue with the IRS, and today in a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, he pressed Commissioner Werfel to commit to doubling the rate at which these credits are processed: 

Sen Warner asked, “I want to drill down on two issues… The first is, and this was the call we had in late March, the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC). And one of the things we put in place during COVID, again, a bipartisan piece of legislation, which I think was well intended to make sure that employers kept people on during COVID rather than having to put them on unemployment. As I shared with you, you know, there are a number of businesses in Virginia, and I imagine this is probably the case in other states as well, where there's been a backlog. They can't get clarity. They're not getting these tax credits, which I think they did deserve. And since these are businesses that did, from a policy standpoint, what I think we all thought was the right thing by keeping folks employed during that period. Can you update us on the overall ERTC backlog and where we stand?”

Commissioner Werfel explained the factors that make processing ERTC claims difficult, then said, “The action is that now that filing season has ended, we now expect less of calls coming in, as most people have filed their taxes. And we can redeploy people off the phones and reset them so that we're managing paper. Now, prior to this move of moving people off the phones, we were resolving about 20,000 of these Employee Retention Credits a week and using overtime and any downtime where the phones aren't up, moving people to do it. Like every resource, it's an all-hands-on-deck situation post this filing season. Now that we can reset the staff, I think we can maybe double per week the amount of refund of credits that we're processing. So that's the action that we're taking. And in particular, I want to make sure and I've talked to the team about making sure that we go with the older ones first, like those that have been waiting the longest. So, you know, really focus on if it was received in 2022 or prior because they're still coming in, and under the law they can come in until 2025. So this is a filing that we're going to be dealing with for years, but I think we're going to make progress.”

Sen. Warner said, “That was a great answer, and I also took away the fact that you're going to double per week… How much of the backlog is being taken care of on a weekly basis at this point?”

Commissioner Werfel answered, “20,000 a week.”

Sen. Warner reinforced the answer and asked, “So we can look at 40,000 a week.”

Commissioner Werfel responded, “That's the hope.”

Sen. Warner, “You just said it on the record, so I'm going to be back to you!”

Separately, Sen. Warner also pushed Commissioner Werfel in today’s hearing to maximize awareness of the tax benefit created by his bipartisan Employer Participation in Repayment Act, which allows employers to contribute $5,250 tax-free towards their employees’ student loans. The credit has been extended until 2025 and is currently available to help employers retain talent while borrowers pay down their debt.

While questioning Commissioner Werfel, Sen. Warner said, “You know, Section 127 of the code has something that has again been bipartisan, supported for years, which basically, as you're aware, allows an employer to go ahead and send an employee back to school to get additional education. And that additional education up to $5,250 a year goes tax-free to the employee, great retention tool, great ability to get additional skills. One of the things and my friend John Thune and I put a bill in that got broad bipartisan support… that said… shouldn't we also allow those employees who have student debt to go ahead and qualify as well and… pay down that $5,250 a year, tax-free. We had it put in place for a year. It got extended through 2025. It seems like such a no brainer. The take up rate has been not great. What can we do to help further promote? And this is an area where, regardless how we feel about student debt, you know, everybody's kind of all in, and it’s a great retention tool.”

Sen. Warner has consistently pushed for faster processing of outstanding ERTC claims, including during a direct call to Commissioner Werfel in March, and has supported legislation to expand the program. He has also been a tireless advocate to improve IRS customer service and accelerate return times. Sen. Warner strongly supported the Inflation Reduction Act — legislation which provides funding to modernize IRS systems and improve customer service when paying taxes. This will help ensure the IRS has the resources it needs to process tax returns quickly, get rebates to taxpayers faster, and address challenges Virginians have when filing taxes. These investments have improved IRS response rates this tax season from answering two out of every 10 calls to answering nine out of every 10 calls.

Additionally, Sen. Warner has been pressing the IRS to address pandemic-related processing delays for several years. Sen. Warner first raised concerns over backlogs at the IRS in February 2021, as millions of Americans waited for delayed stimulus payments and processing of their tax returns. In January 2022, as the tax filing season opened, Sen. Warner again called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and then-Commissioner Rettig to quickly address reports of unprocessed tax returns for the 2020 filing season. Later that month, Sen. Warner called on the IRS to provide relief for taxpayers amidst the backlog – a request he again reiterated in a bipartisan and bicameral March letter.

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WASHINGTON – With millions of Americans struggling to get answers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today continued his push to reduce delays and ensure that Virginians are able to get through the 2022 filing season as smoothly as possible.

In a joint letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Sen. Warner and a number of his Senate colleagues today urged the IRS to take immediate action to reduce its massive backlog and improve its customer service during the 2022 tax filing season. Specifically, the lawmakers called on the IRS to consider pursuing maximum overtime options for its staff, expanding its surge teams to address processing and correspondence delays, and seeking fast ways to train additional employees and volunteers.

“As the IRS works to eliminate the current backlog of returns and correspondence, we request you to pursue additional actions to maximize the IRS’ current workforce to address the backlog in order to reduce disruptions this filing season,” wrote the lawmakers to IRS Commissioner Rettig.

“We continue to hear from constituents who are still waiting for their 2020 tax returns, have received confusing notices about overdue payments they already paid, and cannot reach anyone at the IRS for assistance. Many of these problems stem from the millions of unprocessed correspondence items from 2021,” the lawmakers added. “We understand the long-term solution to ensure the IRS can manage its workload and provide timely and high-quality service to taxpayers is additional resources to hire and train employees across several departments and modernize technologies. However, those investments will take time, and taxpayers require more immediate relief, especially with the 2022 filing season already underway.”

Additionally, in a Senate Finance Committee hearing today, Sen. Warner questioned IRS National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins about the IRS backlogs and about the measures being taken to address the situation.

Specifically, Sen. Warner touched on the possibility of extending the tax filing deadline, asking whether an extension would be beneficial in light of the ongoing backlogs. He also asked whether the IRS is setting appropriate expectations and whether the IRS can and should do more right now to better communicate issues to taxpayers.

A copy of the letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig is available here. High-quality audio and video of the hearing exchange is available here or above.

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