Jorge Castro, former Counselor to the IRS Commissioner during the Obama Administration and Democratic Congressional tax aide, commented on news that the IRS has been granted direct-hire authority to employ around 10,000 submission processing and accounts management roles, in a move prompted by an urgent need for the agency to clear its backlog of unprocessed mail and tax returns. Castro noted that the IRS's receiving direct-hire authority serves as recognition that the backlog challenges are the result of the pandemic and "tremendous amount of work Congress has placed on the IRS" since 2020. "This has been the perfect storm for the IRS, so allowing them to hire more staff will be a huge help – not only for the IRS but also for taxpayers," Castro said.