IRS cancels final scheduled furlough day

The scheduled Aug. 30 furlough day, leading into the Labor Day weekend, was the last of five originally scheduled due to the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration.

{mosads}Werfel canceled the scheduled July 22 furlough day as well, after also saying that the agency had cut enough costs to stay open. The IRS’s first three furlough days — on May 24, June 14 and July 5 — went ahead as scheduled.

The cancellation comes as GOP lawmakers are continuing to hammer the IRS for its response to the congressional investigation into the agency’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced last week that he was sending a subpoena to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for IRS documentation, after saying that the agency response time was slow and that many of the documents it sent over were unusable.

Werfel had also said earlier that the IRS would be able to cancel the final two furlough days if the agency was able to cancel staff bonuses.

The National Treasury Employees Union has said that the agency should cut elsewhere before going after bonuses for staff under labor contracts.