Grassley, Baucus Urge Tax Panel to Use Joint Tax Scoring

WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen.Max Baucus, ranking member, today urged the new leaders of the President’s tax reform advisorypanel to use the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation’s scoring conventions. Grassley and Baucus sent a letter to the panel leaders; the text follows.

The Honorable Connie Mack 
Co-Chair 
Tax Reform Advisory Panel 
The White House 
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20502

The Honorable John Breaux
Co-Chair
Tax Reform Advisory Panel
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20502

Dear Senators Mack and Breaux:

Congratulations on being selected as co-chairs of the President’s tax reform advisory panel.

We have been strong advocates for tax simplification for many years and hope that any tax reformproposal will maintain a strong focus on that objective. We applaud the President’s repeatedcommitment to achieving tax reform in a revenue-neutral manner. To that end, proposals consideredby the advisory panel and the Administration must be evaluated under a single set of scoringconventions. Congress is bound by scoring conventions employed by the Joint Committee onTaxation in determining the revenue-neutrality of any proposal. Therefore, it is essential that theadvisory panel use those conventions in evaluating its proposals as well. We fear that failure toadhere to congressional estimating standards would severely undermine any proposal recommendedby the advisory panel.

We would be glad to work with you and the Joint Committee on Taxation in getting estimatesfor your proposals. We stand ready to assist you to ensure that your recommendations meet thePresident’s revenue-neutrality requirement.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley 
Chairman

Max Baucus
Ranking Member

cc: Mr. George Yin, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation
The Honorable John W. Snow, Secretary, Department of the Treasury

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