It’s official – former southwest Missouri Congressman Billy Long will be the next commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. He was confirmed Thursday by the full U.S. Senate in a 53-44 party line vote.

His nomination had been strongly opposed by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, who accused Long of illegally selling fake tribal tax credits in exchange for paying off a campaign debt. Republicans argued that Long’s tax consulting work occurred as an independent contractor and followed federal guidelines.

Long’s supporters in the upper chamber include U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. He told Radio Iowa in a recent interview that Long has “very aggressive plans” for the IRS, which might even include a name change.

“He says he’s going to change the IRS letters to something that — I don’t know exactly — the three letters he gave us, but it’s to make IRS a more friendly organization,” Grassley said. “Instead of being feared, he wants (it) to be a service for the American people, and we ought to applaud him on that because the IRS is actually feared by people. If you get a letter from the IRS, it just scares the heck out of you.”

Long served as Missouri’s Seventh District Congressman from 2011 through 2022. He chose not to run for a seventh term and instead sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, which was won by Eric Schmitt.