[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 135 (Saturday, November 20, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11795-S11796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TAX ISSUES OUTSIDE THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, as I listen to the debate tonight about 
Section 222, which invades the privacy rights of taxpayers, I would 
like to point out an important lesson in all of this.
  The lesson is that tax measures should be left to the tax writing 
committees. Only the Finance Committee and the Ways and Means Committee 
have the jurisdiction and the technical expertise to write our Nation's 
tax laws. And tax laws are technical. As Section 222 in this bill 
shows, one had better know what they are doing when they write a tax 
provision. They had better understand the history of the measure and 
all of its ramifications. In the Finance Committee, we use great care 
in drafting our tax provisions, and we do it in an open manner. All 
members can see what we are doing and have a chance to understand why 
we are doing it, and to comment on it. But frequently the Finance 
Committee has to go through a rite of scrubbing appropriations bills to 
remove poorly conceived and poorly drafted tax provisions that try to 
sneak in at the dark of night. It is not just appropriations bill where 
this occurs. It happens on many other bills as well. Often, these 
provisions have been rejected by the Finance Committees as bad policy, 
only to turn up in an unseen attack on our committee's jurisdiction. As 
the bill shows tonight, it is not necessarily Members that do this. It 
is sometimes staff who add an idea. This allows staff to bypass the 
scrutiny of the entire Finance Committee; 21 senior Members of the 
Senate are deprived of their right to pass judgment on a tax measure. 
Let me give some examples of what we have had to fend off lately. Last 
week, we had to defeat an appropriations proposal that would have cut 
off funding for Federal agencies that help the IRS obtain information 
about Americans investing in foreign countries.
  That measure would have undercut U.S. tax law enforcement and damaged 
our initiatives to combat tax shelters. It would have damaged our 
international competitiveness and undermined our Nation's efforts to 
combat money-laundering and terrorist financing.
  I am confident that the proponents of this measure never knew about 
its broader ramifications. But that is what happens when tax proposals 
evade the scrutiny of the Finance Committee.
  Here is another example. Recently, the Armed Services Committee 
sought to create a charity for assisting servicemen and their families. 
On its face, this is certainly a good cause that we can all 
support.Unfortunately, the statutory language drafted by the Armed 
Services Committee had very serious flaws and was unworkable under the 
Tax Code. It was only after significant time and energy by the Finance 
Committee, exerted after the fact, that we fixed something that 
shouldn't have been broken in the first place. If Members will learn to 
work with the Finance Committee, instead of bypassing it, we can 
usually achieve the results they seek.

[[Page S11796]]

  Here is an example. The House Appropriations Committee tried to 
expand the definition of census areas for determining eligibility for a 
certain tax program. This provision was not agreed to by the Senate 
Appropriators. The provision was later passed in the JOBS bill. This 
highlights that we try in good faith to work with Members who will work 
with the committee. So let me send a very clear message. The 
controversy around this appropriations bill should serve as a warning 
to all who would bypass the jurisdiction and expertise of the 
congressional tax writing committees. We work to defeat stealth tax 
measures not just to protect our committee's jurisdiction, but to 
protect the American people from bad ideas.
  In the Senate it is the Finance Committee, and only the Finance 
Committee, that has the experience, expertise, and seasoned resources 
to process tax laws for our Nation.
  Members and staff should remember today's events the next time they 
are approached to insert a ``harmless'' tax measure into an unrelated 
bill.

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