Sen. Orrin Hatch promises tax reform won't be drafted in secret

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Examiner

Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top tax writer in the Senate, promised Tuesday that tax reform legislation would proceed in a transparent and deliberative manner, and pledged that no one would be able to complain that the legislation would be secretive or rushed.

The Utah Republican spoke on the Senate floor just moments after leadership delayed a vote on healthcare legislation that was supposed to have been brought to the floor just days after being released and that was strongly opposed by Democrats partly for that reason.

 

"No one should be able to credibly claim that they were unable to participate or that they did not have enough information on the bill," Hatch said about tax reform.

Instead, he suggested, tax reform should proceed through a full process in committee and on the Senate floor. Any bill would go through the panel that he heads, the Senate Finance Committee. The idea that tax reform will be a "closed door exercise is absurd," he said.

In recent weeks, Hatch has been meeting with counterparts in the Trump administration and in the House to negotiate a single Republican tax overhaul plan that could quickly advance through the two chambers and reach President Trump's desk. The participants have been tight-lipped about the direction of their conversations.

At the same time, though, Hatch has revved up a committee process for tax reform, last week soliciting input from stakeholders.

On Tuesday, he said that he had asked some Republican members of the committee to work on specific aspects of reform.

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Hopefully this will work out better than the health care bill...