National Treasury Employees Union president Colleen Kelley told the House financial services appropriations subcommittee recently that a depleted workforce and a rising workload because of this year’s stimulus rebates and late action on the alternative minimum tax has highlighted staffing and resource problems at the agency.
"It is imperative to reverse the severe cuts in IRS staffing levels and begin providing adequate resources to meet these challenges," Kelley said at a review of the proposed fiscal 2009 IRS budget.
Kelley proposed a five-year hiring plan to restore staffing to pre-1996 levels, with a net increase of three percent, or about 2,600 positions a year.
According to Kelley’s testimony, IRS said staffing at the end of fiscal 2007 was at 86,638, down from 90,115 the year before, and down from 114,064 in 1995 – while tax returns have increased from 114 million to over 134 million.
For fiscal 2009, the White House has proposed a $500 million funding increase over fiscal 2008 to $11.4 billion, something Kelley said was "insufficient and unrealistic."
