WASHINGTON – Congressman Jason Smith (MO-08) released the following statement after being selected to serve as the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means for the 118th Congress:
“It is deeply humbling and an honor to be selected by my colleagues to serve as the next Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. With our new House Republican majority, we have made a commitment to the American people to build a stronger economy that gives everyone – not just the wealthy and politically-connected – greater opportunity to build a more prosperous future for themselves and their families. Americans also expect us to hold the Biden Administration accountable for the crises it has caused and to once again exercise Congress’s oversight authority which has been entirely absent under one-party Democrat rule in Washington. Republicans will meet these challenges and more, head-on, every day of this Congress.
“Our first step is defunding the $80 billion pay increase Democrats gave the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents to target working families. But we are not stopping there. If confirmed, the new IRS Commissioner should plan to spend a lot of time before our committee answering questions about the leaking of sensitive taxpayer information and an agency with a history of targeting conservative Americans. We will make it clear to every IRS employee that the Ways & Means Committee welcomes whistleblower efforts to uncover corrupt behavior at that agency.
"Ways and Means Republicans will build an economy that is strong by prioritizing our most valuable economic resource, the American worker. We will build on the success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and examine how our policies can reward working families with a tax code that delivers better jobs, higher wages, and more investment in America. We must also examine whether it is in the best interests of the American people to continue showering tax benefits on corporations that have shed their American identity in favor of a relationship with China.
“We will examine using both trade policy and our tax code to re-shore and strengthen our supply chains, where products and services vital to our national security are made here at home using American labor, as well as craft policies that help America achieve food and medical security rather than dependence on nations like China. We must also look at ways to encourage domestic energy production and achieve energy independence through the tax code instead of using it as a tool to punish energy producers as President Biden has suggested.
“Domestically, we cannot expect our labor force to recover if Congress makes work less valuable than a government check, as Democrats did when they dismantled the Child Tax Credit in 2021. We must provide an on-ramp for able-bodied adults to transition into the workforce, and we must also take seriously our responsibility to create the economic conditions that allow them to thrive upon reentry.
“The American people can rest assured that help is on the way. It’s time to get to work.”
An Agenda That Works for Working Families
Under House Republicans, the Ways and Means Committee will champion an agenda that works for working families by focusing on delivering more jobs, higher wages, and greater investment in America, including:
- Utilizing the tax code to increase jobs, grow wages, and build financial and health care security for families.
- Reasserting Congress’s oversight responsibility by investigating politically motivated leaks of taxpayer information by the IRS and rolling back efforts by the Biden Administration to use the agency to target the middle class.
- Re-shoring and strengthening supply chains to create food, medical, and energy independence.
- Advancing the interests of American workers and punishing unfair trade practices that benefit China at the expense of the American workforce and job creators.
- Unleashing American energy production that rebuilds America’s energy independence while lowering costs for consumers.
- Restoring and strengthening policies that will transition able bodied adults off of welfare and back to the workforce.
