Ways and Means Chairman Brady Issues Tax Reform Mission Statement for Pro-Growth Policy Agenda

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), who has been tasked by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) with leading a task force on tax reform, on March 2 released a mission statement, set of principles, policy reforms, and desired outcomes for the task force. The tax reform task force is one of six task forces Ryan has established and charged with developing a Republican pro-growth agenda to be presented to the country in the months ahead. The task forces are designed to allow for a bottom-up approach that allows other Republican House members to provide input into the development of the agenda through a series of idea forums.

The tax reform task force’s mission, to "create jobs, grow the economy, and raise wages by reducing rates, removing special interest carve-outs, and making our broken tax code simpler and fairer," provides insight into the direction Brady is likely to take when the Committee embarks on comprehensive tax reform. Brady and other Republican leaders on multiple occasions have said that while they do not expect Congress to enact comprehensive tax reform until the next President takes office in 2017, they intend to use this year to lay the groundwork for those reforms.

The policy reforms Brady intends to seek would "lower tax rates for families, small businesses, and corporations; eliminate special-interest carve-outs; reduce complexity in the tax code; reduce the double taxation of savings and investment; and reduce the tax bias against headquartering businesses and locating jobs in America," with the goals of increasing investment and employment, providing stability, allowing business decisions to be driven by economic potential rather than tax considerations, and achieving further pro-growth reforms.