James Walkinshaw details his tech agenda; IRS has lost 25% of its IT workforce since Trump took office

The likely successor to the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., hopes to continue his former boss’s commitment to federal IT reform if elected to Congress, while also gearing up to build his own legacy in the era of DOGE. Democrat James Walkinshaw told FedScoop in an interview last week that carrying on Connolly’s federal IT advocacy is especially important to him as widespread workforce and program cuts present new challenges for the government’s IT staff and related initiatives. While issues like IT modernization and procurement might “become less and less sexy by the day” amid other controversies in Washington, Walkinshaw said he is a “believer” that Congress should keep its foot on the pedal in this space. Walkinshaw, who served as Connolly’s chief of staff for 11 years, is vying for Virginia’s 11th congressional seat this fall to succeed the late congressman following his death from cancer in May. He currently serves on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. During the interview with FedScoop, Walkinshaw shared his thoughts on the lasting impacts of DOGE, his concerns with agency adoption of AI and his policy goals, if elected. The IRS has lost a quarter of its workforce since the beginning of the Trump administration, including thousands from the tax agency’s IT business unit, according to newly released watchdog data. A snapshot report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that more than 25,000 IRS employees either took the deferred resignation offer, retired or were separated from the agency in another way, while nearly 300 staffers were terminated via reduction-in-force actions. Combined, those departures represent 25% of the agency’s workforce, which has downsized from roughly 103,000 staffers to 77,428 as of May. According to TIGTA, the IRS’s IT business unit has lost 25% of its staffers over the same period, leaving the division with just over 2,100 employees. The IT management job series across agency units is down 23%, per the report. TIGTA also confirmed previous FedScoop reporting on the IRS’s move in late March to place nearly 50 IT executives on administrative leave. Among those employees, 26 eventually departed via Treasury Department incentive offerings, while another 22 are still on admin leave, per the watchdog. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.