Coons to Bessent: “Why’d you shut down Direct File?”
April 22, 2026
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1:22Now PlayingCoons to Bessent: “Why’d you shut down Direct File?”
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelSen. Chris Coons (D-DE) probed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over the IRS's termination of the Direct File pilot program that had allowed for Americans to file their federal tax forms using a free, online government-run platform.
"Why'd you shut down Direct File when it was free and easy to use?" Sen. Coons asked, in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
Secretary Bessent said the pilot program, which processed 300,000 Americans' tax returns last year, had not attracted enough users to merit its $72 million cost.
"There is an alternative, which is a public-private partnership, 'Free File' … over 3 million people use that," Secretary Bessent said. "For Direct File, more than 60% of the people who started their application didn't finish it."
#taxes #chriscoons #scottbessent #politics #cspan
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