BY: JASON HANCOCK
Missouri Independent
Former Missouri Congressman Billy Long received $137,000 in campaign contributions — just enough to pay off a personal loan to his campaign — soon after he was tapped to lead the Internal Revenue Service.
Some of the donations are connected to companies that will be policed by the agency Long has been nominated to run.
According to recently filed financial disclosures, which were first reported on by the investigative journalism site The Lever, Long only raised roughly $36,000 in the last two years.
He was named as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the IRS in December, and in January received $137,000 in donations. He then paid back the remaining $130,000 in debt from a $250,000 loan he made to his unsuccessful 2022 U.S. Senate campaign.
The donations, and their timing, have renewed criticism of Long’s appointment, which still awaits Senate confirmation. Senate Democrats have already called for a criminal investigation of firms with ties to Long that they allege are involved in fraudulent tax credit schemes.
Among the donors to Long’s campaign are financial advisers from some of those firms.
“When they told Billy he’d be in charge of revenue collection, did they forget to tell him that meant for the American people, not his own bank account?” said Sean Nicholson, a longtime progressive activist and campaign consultant in Missouri.
Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications for the liberal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the timing of the donations and the “explicit knowledge that they’d end up directly in Long’s bank account, it’s hard to see them as anything other than an attempt to curry favor with the future head of the IRS.”
Long did not respond to a request for comment.
After a career as an auctioneer and conservative radio host, Long served six terms representing a Southwest Missouri congressional district. He gave up his seat to run for U.S. Senate in 2022, losing in the GOP primary to now-Sen. Eric Schmitt.
Long then worked for Lifetime Advisors and earned at least $5,000 in income from White River Energy. Both companies have drawn scorn from Senate Democrats, and intense media scrutiny, over their involvement in controversial tax credit programs.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a limit on the amount of post-election funds a candidate can use to pay back personal loans. The majority found the limit an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech, while the dissenting justices argued removing it would pave the way for political corruption.
“Even if our broken campaign finance system allows this behavior,” Libowitz said, “it raises serious questions about future conflicts of interest and needs to be addressed in any hearings (Billy Long) has before Congress.”
Last updated 5:57 a.m., Apr. 19, 2025