The IRS fired 6,700 employees on Thursday, a government official told NewsNation, the sister television network of The Hill.

The employees were designated as probationary, meaning they were working for the agency on a trial basis prior to becoming full staff members.

More than 5,000 of the fired staff members were auditors and collection staff dealing with tax compliance issues, the official told NewsNation.

The White House, Treasury Department and the IRS did not respond to questions from The Hill regarding the specifics of the firings.

But Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), told reporters at the White House on Thursday that the decision was motivated by government efficiency concerns.

“I think our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective. And there are, many, more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes. And not all of them are fully occupied. And the Treasury Secretary is studying the matter and feels like 3500 is a small number, and probably you can get bigger as we improve the IT at the IRS," Hassett said.

Republicans have been gunning for the IRS since Democrats gave the agency an $80 billion funding boost in 2022........

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