Crapo: Faulkender Highly Qualified to Serve as Deputy Treasury Secretary
Washington, D.C.--During a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Michael Faulkender to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) praised Mr. Faulkender’s qualifications, saying, in part, “Based upon your public and private sector experience, academic credentials and areas of focus and training, you are highly qualified to serve as Deputy Treasury Secretary in this Administration,” adding that he looked forward to supporting his nomination.
During the hearing, Chairman Crapo underscored the importance of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending. Mr. Faulkender outlined ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of financial systems, modernizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to better serve taxpayers and strengthening federal accountability measures.
Watch Senator Crapo’s opening statement here and line of questioning here.
On President Trump’s efforts to improve government efficiency
Crapo: I am sure you have noticed the daily news on President Trump’s efforts to improve the efficiency of the federal government and get rid of waste, fraud and abuse. Though I understand you have a very limited role currently in advising Secretary Bessent on these issues, I would like to give you an opportunity to provide your perspective on these efforts. For example: what is your understanding of the focus of the President’s efforts? How does one ensure that taxpayer money is well spent?
Faulkender: . . . It's my understanding that the objective is to improve the effectiveness of those systems and provide modern levels of customer service, privacy and collections at the IRS. . . . The purpose of [these improvements] is to help departments’ matrices better understand how money is being spent and be more accountable to Congress and the American people for those funds.
On IRS modernization
Crapo: . . . I understand the President and Treasury Secretary Bessent are interested in taking a different approach at the IRS, both by trimming waste and also planning for and investing in real technological change. I also understand that all evaluation and modernization work will be undertaken using usual and customary safeguards, including not exposing any taxpayer’s personally identifiable information. I also understand Secretary Bessent is fully committed to ensuring tax filing season will not be disrupted by these processes. Can you confirm my understanding and provide additional detail about efficiency and modernization activities at the IRS?
Faulkender: Yes, Mr. Chairman, the Secretary's objective is to ensure that the American people realize a “2025 experience” when they interact with the IRS, and he has prioritized collection, customer service and privacy. The challenge that we have is that both Democrat and Republican Administrations have recognized that the technology at the IRS is built on top of 1960s systems. . . . What we're doing is asking for a review of what systems are being built at the IRS. We have people who have worked with financial institutions and technology companies who understand how to build modern systems architecture . . . to ensure that the right systems architecture is being created to provide that level of 2025 service to the American people.
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