Larry Gibbs commented on the retirement of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy Dana Trier, who announced his retirement in February 2018 shortly after being promoted to the deputy assistant role. While some have speculated that Trier's departure was a political decision or motivated by the tax reform process, Gibbs, a former IRS commissioner and a friend of Trier's, said, "under the best of circumstances, major tax reform is a difficult process, and drafting glitches as well as legislative language uncertainties are inevitable. However, the present political divide in our country and its impact on the federal government's inability to produce major legislation on a bipartisan basis seem to me to be the real culprit here. Not that long ago, input from both political parties and all interested stakeholders in our tax system through public hearings, with all involved taking the time to make good policy choices and hone legislative language, made major legislation better—not perfect but better," Gibbs said. "Without such cooperation and input, the truth is that major legislation is not going to be better."