WASHINGTON,
D.C. –
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined
Finance Committee member Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) in leading an amicus brief, filed by the American Center for
Law and Justice, in support of Ohio’s lawsuit in Ohio v. Yellen, a
lawsuit charging that the recently-passed American Jobs Act unlawfully
restricts the states’ ability to reduce taxes.
“The
vague nature of the ‘no tax cuts’ provision has injected uncertainty into state
fiscal policy decisions, and, as predicted, has invited lawsuits,” said
Senator Crapo. “It provides so much latitude for the administration
to decide, at the federal level, what it deems to be appropriate or
inappropriate state fiscal policy that the Treasury Secretary is essentially
unconstrained in implementation. The provision serves no useful purpose,
and has inserted partisan politics into federal and state relations.”
“Washington
bureaucrats are the last people who should be setting fiscal policy for South
Carolina,” said Senator Scott. “I am grateful to Senator Crapo and the
rest of our colleagues for standing with me to ensure we bring an end to this
unconstitutional, partisan federal overreach.”
The
brief focuses on the tax cut restrictions found in section 602 of the
Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, arguing that the provision
exceeds Congress’s power under the Spending Clause, and that the conditions
exceed the conditioning power recognized by the Supreme Court.
Link
to the brief here.
Link
to the ACLJ press release and full list of Congressional signators here.
LIST
OF SENATE SIGNATORS
Senator
Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
Senator
Tim Scott (R-South Carolina)
Senator
John Barrasso (R-Wyoming)
Senator
Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee)
Senator
John Boozman (R-Arkansas)
Senator
Mike Braun (R-Indiana)
Senator
John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Senator
Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota)
Senator
Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
Senator
Steve Daines (R-Montana)
Senator
Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee)
Senator
James Lankford (R-Oklahoma)
Senator
Roger Marshall (R-Kansas)
Senator
Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
Senator
Jim Risch (R-Idaho)
Senator
Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska)
Senator
Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina)
Senator
Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi)
Senator
Todd Young (R-Indiana)
###