Senate panel to vote Thursday on Trump’s pick to lead IRS
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Monday announced plans for the panel to vote Thursday on President Trump’s nominee to lead the IRS.
IRS commissioner nominee Chuck Rettig, a California tax lawyer, testified before the panel in late June, and the Finance Committee is likely to advance his nomination. Republicans and even some Democrats on the panel have spoken positively about him.
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If confirmed, Rettig would be tasked with overseeing implementation of the tax law Trump signed in December, in addition to addressing the IRS’s customer service and technology issues.
He would serve for the remainder of a five-year term ending in November 2022 if the Senate confirms him.
Rettig said during his confirmation hearing that his top goal at the agency would be to “strengthen and rebuild the trust” in the IRS. He also said repeatedly during the hearing, in response to questions from lawmakers in both parties, that he would work to keep the IRS free from political interference.
“I would hope that the members of this committee and the American taxpayers see me as staunchly independent,” he said.
Rettig’s ownership of rental units in a Trump-branded property in Hawaii became a point of debate during the hearing. Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, expressed some concerns on that front, saying that if Rettig wanted to avoid the appearance of any possible conflict of interest, he could sell the properties.
But Hatch said that any suggestion of a conflict is “the stuff of conspiracy theories.”
A spokeswoman for Wyden said that the senator would likely announce how he plans to vote on Rettig’s nomination at the start of Thursday’s committee meeting.
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