Despite nearly two years of denials, last month the IRS finally admitted the truth – three years ago the agency began systematically targeting individuals based on their political beliefs.  However, what the agency has yet to admit, and what we still need to find out, is just how widespread this activity was, who ordered it and why it began in the first place. Now, let’s… Read more

Good morning and welcome to the third hearing in the Committee’s series on the President’s and other bipartisan entitlement reform proposals.     Workers have worked hard, played by the rules, and earned the right to a secure retirement that no one can take away.   Yet unless Congress acts to protect and preserve Social Security, beginning in 2033, Social… Read more

On May 10, 2013, Lois Lerner, Director of Exempt Organizations for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) division that oversees tax-exempt groups, finally acknowledged that the agency had been targeting conservative-leaning political organizations.     Four days later, the Treasury Inspector General for Taxpayer Administration (TIGTA) confirmed that, “the IRS used inappropriate… Read more

Good afternoon.  I want to welcome everyone to our hearing on the U.S.-EU trade and investment partnership negotiations.  Today’s hearing focuses on the enormous potential that exists in a U.S.-EU trade and investment agreement.  The U.S.-EU economic relationship is the largest and most integrated in the world, comprising 50 percent of global GDP and supporting millions of… Read more

The hearing will come to order.  Good morning and thank you for joining us for our hearing on the Ways & Means Small Business Tax Reform Discussion Draft. In March 2011, the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee held a hearing on small businesses and tax reform.  We learned that the temporary, complex nature of the tax code was forcing small business owners to invest… Read more

Entering foster care is a life-changing experience for children. Foster children are faced with a dizzying array of changes that are anything but normal. They are separated from their parents. They are often sent to live with a family they have never met. They may start attending a new school, have to make new friends, and make new efforts to participate in sports and other activities… Read more

Welcome to today’s hearing on the IRS’s final report on its Colleges and Universities Compliance Project. Over the last two decades, tax-exempt organizations have grown increasingly complex in their organizational structures and operations. This has made it more difficult for the IRS to conduct oversight of the sector.  Lending to this complexity is the prevalence of profit… Read more

I want to welcome everyone to today’s hearing on addressing the broken Sustainable Growth Rate formula by which the federal government reimburses our local doctors for treating Medicare patients.  While this is our third hearing, SGR has also been a focal point at the first two.   The first hearing was on redesigning the Medicare benefit package to make it more rational and… Read more

Good morning and welcome. Every six years a new Commissioner is nominated and confirmed to lead the Social Security Administration.  Congress deliberately created a term that might straddle political changes in the executive branch to underscore the importance of strong and independent leadership for this agency that touches the lives of every American citizen.… Read more

Good morning and thank you for joining us today as we continue our dialogue with individuals, families and job creators of all sizes about the critical steps Congress can take through tax reform to get our economy back on solid footing. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is important for Congress to fix our broken tax code.  As anyone in this room who just completed… Read more