with ken corbin who can get the direct responses for you on that. in terms of processing, we process on a first in first out basis. we have a few million, about 2 1/2 million returns that were filed in calendar year 2020 -- paper returns in calendar year 2020 -- excuse me -- 2021 and we have about a million -- 4.2 million total paper returns in inventory to be processed. everything else is in processed has looked out and fallen out for some particular reason. but we can certainly go through it. i am confident, if i may, madam chair, if any of you are in my seat, you would have the same passion and pride that i sit here with of the effort of our folks to get this right. we are working really hard on behalf of each of you and every american. >> we appreciate that. and you can follow up in writing with all those details about how you're going to be processing these returns this year. the gentleman's time has expired. the chair now recognizes mr. hern for five minutes. mr. hern: thank you, mr. rettig, for being here today. it's great to see you again. i

i will hold a one-on-one conversation with you, or without you, with your staff, bringing ken corbin, who is our taxpayer experience officer and for constituents who were having difficulty, wanting to know where their matter is, get us an a waiver so we can talk to you. get us the taxpayers information. i have been on calls where, you know, it opens up there 70 and kim corbin will go, 14 are here and 13 are waiting. so the idea when we talk about how many returns we have, it's not like they're sitting in a closet somewhere. we have 4 million returns that-- paper returns to process. the rest of the inventory, if you will, are they've been kicked out for an error in the return. they've been kicked out for matching identity theft, there's a whole host of reasons, keeping in mind we are the gate keeper for fraud. we're the gate keeper for cyber, 1.6 billion cyber attacks per year with recent world events and you want us to be that gate keeper and you want us to be ever vigilant and you absolutely must fund us to keep those gates closed for the benefit of every american. we get hit, it's e