For over 75 years Social Security has relied on the strong work ethic of Americans.  Workers pay part of their hard-earned wages for the promise of future benefits should they retire, become disabled or die.  Seniors, those with disabilities, widows, and their families count on these benefits to be there for them.   Yet according to the recently released Annual Report of… Read more

Good morning and thank you for joining us today for another in a series of hearings on comprehensive tax reform.  Whether at full committee, subcommittee or the Joint Committee on Taxation event, this committee has been actively engaged in a systematic review of the tax code for a very simple reason – today’s tax code is preventing, not promoting, job creation.   And on the… Read more

Good morning.  I’d like to welcome everyone to this morning’s hearing on improper payments in the administration of refundable tax credits. In the course of less than a decade, improper payments arising from refundable tax credits have cost taxpayers an estimated $106 billion according to government reports.  To put this amount of money in perspective, it’s more than the… Read more

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today for the next in our series of hearings on comprehensive tax reform. Today’s hearing will examine international tax rules in various countries and identify best practices that might be applied here in the United States.  The hearing will explore policy choices that must be considered to create a structure that maximizes… Read more

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for the latest in the series of hearings the Ways and Means Committee has convened to discuss comprehensive tax reform.  Today, we will examine the impact of the tax code on American companies that operate in the global economy – both here and abroad. In a future hearing, I expect we will examine the opposite side of the… Read more

We are meeting today to hear from four individuals who have experience to share that will inform us as we consider how to reform Medicare payments to physicians.  This is a priority for the Subcommittee as Medicare physician payment rates will be cut by nearly 30% on January 1st unless Congress acts.   The flaws of Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate are well-known to members… Read more

The Committee will come to order. We meet today to consider H.R. 1745. Last Friday, we received the April unemployment numbers.  While there was some good news about the number of jobs being created, the fact is the nation’s unemployment rate ticked back up to nine percent.  In my home state of Michigan, we are perilously close to three straight years of unemployment rates in… Read more

Good morning, and welcome to this morning’s Oversight Subcommittee hearing on the transparency and funding levels of state and local pension plans. Across the federal, state, and local levels of government, our country faces a growing burden of public debt.  Too often, governments have deferred difficult choices by pushing obligations off into the future without responsibly saving… Read more

Employers are on the front lines of ensuring a legal workforce – and it is a battle for these employers.  Consider for a moment that due to our broken immigration enforcement system, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are over 8 million illegal workers in the country.  With unemployment around 9 percent, these illegal workers often compete with lawful citizens for much… Read more

We meet today to continue our dialogue about what I hope will result in a bipartisan path forward to reform our federal income tax system.  While there has been a lot of valuable discussion about the impediments the tax code creates for America’s job creators – and we will certainly continue that discussion over the time ahead – today’s hearing will focus on the burdens imposed by… Read more