3 Months Late, Neal Begins Oversight With “Easiest” Task, Trump’s Returns
The Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser Reacts to Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal
For Immediate Release Contact: Jeff Hauser, hauser@cepr.net
April 3, 2019
3 Months Late, Neal Starts Oversight With “Easiest” Task, Trump’s Returns
The Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser Reacts to Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal
The Revolving Door Project welcomes the news that Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, has finally heeded our call and requested President Donald Trump’s tax returns for the last 6 years. Additionally, contrary to early indications, he has heeded our call and included Trump’s business returns within the scope of the request. In so doing, Neal has not only belatedly delivered on one of Democrats’ central campaign promises of the 2018 midterm cycle, but also taken a first step towards honoring his constitutional obligation to perform oversight.
We continue to regret that Neal did not see fit to submit this request on January 3rd, the day on which he assumed leadership of the Ways and Means Committee and with it the unquestionable legal right to request the President’s tax returns. Neal’s hesitation gifted the president a legally unnecessary additional delay of three months from when Trump has to share his returns with the Committee. This delay did not enable Committee oversight on other important topics, as there has been little to no Ways and Means Committee oversight on any front. And compelling this request required the expenditure of much energy by members of the public and groups like ourselves in order to spur Neal to make a move Speaker Pelosi once termed “the easiest thing in the world.”
While we celebrate this victory, we bemoan energy expended which should not have been required and what it foretells for the future. Because after taking this overdue and “easy” step, we are apprehensive about whether the Ways and Means Committee will perform the other critical, overdue, and adversarial oversight, which it has largely neglected up to this point.
We sincerely hope that Neal’s trepidation completing his first, simple task is not indicative of his approach to oversight for the remainder of his term as Chairman. As one of the House’s most powerful members, Neal is in a position to open investigations and find answers on many matters of import to the American people. Now that he has requested Trump’s tax returns, Neal should lead his committee to the more difficult work of understanding the system that has allowed corporations and the ultrawealthy, like President Trump, to escape accountability.
Done well, that work has transformative potential. There is, however, no time to waste. Neal must move forward on oversight without additional delay.
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