[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 56 (Tuesday, March 28, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S994-S995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JEFF WRASE

  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I pay tribute to Jeff Wrase, the U.S. 
Senate Finance Committee's deputy staff director and chief economist, 
who recently left the committee after more than 11 years of service.
  For more than 20 years, Jeff served in what many consider to be the 
``wonkiest'' committees in Congress: the Senate Finance, Banking, and 
Budget Committees, the Joint Economic Committee, and the House Budget 
Committee. Jeff's strong background in economics and career in 
academics made him a natural fit for each committee, with a unique 
skill set for thoroughly briefing and advising members on everything 
from macroeconomics, to international finance, to Federal debt 
management.
  As a member of the Finance, Banking, and Budget Committees, I have 
had the opportunity to work closely with Jeff on many issues for more 
than a decade. When I became ranking member of the Senate Finance 
Committee at the onset of the 117th Congress, I knew I needed Jeff 
Wrase on my team. This decision proved invaluable over the next 2 
years, as Jeff spent much of his time fighting to protect the pro-
growth tax and regulatory changes that had been implemented by the 
Finance Committee in recent years.
  Jeff was instrumental in reducing the scope and damage posed by 
multiple tax-and-spend packages proposed during the 117th Congress. 
From arguing before the Senate Parliamentarian about arcane budget 
rules or helping to educate members or the American people about 
pitfall-laden policy proposals, Jeff immersed himself in each issue, 
asking the tough, smart questions about the feasibility, purpose, and 
practicality of each proposal. He crafted several important pieces of 
legislation to protect hard-working taxpayers, usually countering 
edicts and government overreach from the executive branch. One 
provision would have stricken a directive included in the American 
Rescue Plan Act that forbids States from using relief funds to provide 
any form of tax relief. Jeff picked apart the vague, unenforceable 
nature of the legislation, noting its interference in a State's ability 
to provide tax relief to citizens to reduce the burden on hard-working 
families. It was a strong argument, as several lower courts have 
agreed.

[[Page S995]]

  Another Jeff-authored provision proved powerful in pushing back on 
Internal Revenue Service--IRS--overreach. When the Inflation Reduction 
Act of 2022 was being debated, a key funding mechanism was to provide 
the IRS with a bloated, $80 billion 10-year budget to squeeze more 
money out of American taxpayers to finance Green New Deal priorities. 
Jeff knew the estimated revenue from additional enforcement would have 
to include taxpayers making less than $400,000 per year, thus breaking 
a campaign pledge from the Biden administration to not ``raise taxes 
one penny on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year.'' Congress's 
nonpartisan scorekeepers confirmed that individuals making under that 
amount would be swept up in new audits, and Jeff crafted legislation to 
prevent the IRS from using any new funding to increase audits on anyone 
under that threshold. While the legislation did not pass in a Democrat-
controlled Senate, it sent a clear message that the President's pledge 
was bound to be broken.
  One last example: Jeff may be single-handedly responsible for 
preventing the IRS from being able to snoop into the bank accounts of 
every American. Democrats proposed a new bank monitoring scheme to help 
track inflows and outflows on financial accounts, collecting more data 
on taxpayers in yet another effort to squeeze more funds out of them. 
Jeff helped to shine a spotlight on this idea before it could ever even 
become legislative language. Thanks to an aggressive educational 
campaign, Americans rightly rejected the idea before it could ever 
become law.
  Even while Jeff was fighting these reconciliation battles, he managed 
to simultaneously perform diligent oversight of the executive branch, 
Departments, and Agencies within the committee's jurisdiction, from the 
Social Security Administration to the U.S. Department of the Treasury 
and Internal Revenue Service. Jeff never missed a deadline, and each 
Agency knew it, whether it was the issuance of the Social Security 
Trustees Report, the President's budget, or responding to a letter by 
the requested deadline.
  Jeff's Senate career stretches beyond the tumultuous years of the 
117th Congress, with many accomplishments to count. In 2009, Jeff was 
working on the Senate Banking Committee when then-President Obama and 
Senate Democrats undertook an effort to overhaul the U.S. financial 
regulatory system--or what later became known as the Dodd-Frank Act. 
During Senate negotiations, Obama administration officials, the Federal 
Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation--FDIC--launched 
an all-out campaign for blanket bailout authority that would have 
allowed them to bail out large financial institutions and insert 
greater Federal control over our Nation's private financial system. 
Jeff worked to ensure that provisions in Dodd-Frank covering section 
13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act did not allow unfettered bailout 
authority for unelected government officials, but instead provided a 
role for Congress and its elected officials if ever the Federal Reserve 
and others in government acted to battle ``unusual and exigent 
circumstances'' and required the Fed to be accountable for whatever 
emergency activities it pursued during such circumstances. Having those 
provisions in the Federal Reserve Act to provide a role for Congress 
and to provide transparency in government turned out to be very 
valuable when the Fed was called to react to the economic shutdowns 
accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic.
  In 2015, after years of short-term funding patches, Jeff worked to 
secure critical long-term funding for a bipartisan multiyear highway 
bill, the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, providing much-
needed stability and certainty to our country's highway and transit 
programs. That same year, he developed legislative strategy and text 
for the Social Security provisions of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 
2015, which included the most significant changes to Social Security in 
more than 30 years.
  When the coronavirus pandemic shook the world in early 2020, the 
Senate Finance Committee not only led on tax and health policy 
responses, but also key provisions to help those who were suddenly out 
of work, largely due to factors beyond their control. Jeff was 
instrumental in developing policy to provide much-needed temporary 
support for American workers impacted by the pandemic. Creating a 
temporary enhanced unemployment program that could be implemented 
quickly--and work across all 50 States--was no small feat. Jeff's work 
on the unemployment provisions included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, 
and Economic Security Act provided a lifeline to the self-employed, gig 
workers and other Americans who could not work due to the coronavirus. 
Jeff remained engaged in implementation and oversight of these 
provisions in ensuing years, making sure the government acted as a good 
steward of taxpayer dollars.
  The Finance Committee also has jurisdiction over the Federal debt 
limit, and Jeff has been directly involved in some of the toughest debt 
ceiling battles over the years. From 2011-2012, Jeff was the chief 
economist for the Budget Committee and the Finance Committee and 
successfully helped to prevent the United States from going over a 
``fiscal cliff'' in 2013. While each effort by Congress to increase the 
debt limit involves contemplating staggeringly higher and higher 
numbers, Jeff was committed to pushing every administration to be more 
transparent and provide greater consultation with Congress about their 
debt management approaches. As conversations about how the United 
States will continue to pay its bills on time and how we should budget 
for the future, dominate the halls of Congress, I expect Jeff is 
experiencing a bit of deja vu. Unfortunately, for Jeff, we know where 
to find him.
  Perhaps most consequential in Jeff's Finance Committee career is 
passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the most comprehensive tax 
overhaul in more than 30 years. This tax reform package delivered on 
Republicans' promise of creating and advancing pro-growth policies that 
lift the economy and build a better future for the American people. It 
created a tax code based in simplicity and fairness. It lowered rates 
across the board for all Americans. It ensured businesses of all sizes 
could better compete, bringing jobs and investment back to our shores. 
Prior to the pandemic, we were experiencing the strongest economy in 
many of our lifetimes, in no small part due to this landmark 
legislation. Jeff played an instrumental role in coordinating between 
the Budget and Finance Committees while this package came together, and 
I am not sure we would have succeeded without his prowess using 
Microsoft Excel, which was--and remains--a mystery to many of his 
colleagues. Sincerely, because of Jeff and many other's tireless 
efforts, tax reform did a lot of good for a great number of people 
throughout the country.
  Jeff has been described by many as ``an institution,'' not just of 
the Finance Committee, but of the Senate. He is well-liked and 
respected by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and those who have 
worked with him can attest to his indispensable mentorship, good humor, 
and friendship. He will be missed in the halls of the Senate, but 
fortunately, he has not gone far. I thank him for his outstanding 
counsel and guidance and wish him all the best.

                          ____________________