January 24, 2017

Brown Pushes for Banking Committee Nominees to Provide Tax Returns

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee – is pushing to require Cabinet-level nominations under the Banking panel’s jurisdiction to release their tax returns.

Brown’s proposal would change Banking Committee rules to require Cabinet-level nominees to submit the three most recent years of their tax returns to the Committee before their confirmation hearings. It also would require sub-Cabinet level nominees to provide such returns if requested. The Banking Committee will consider Brown’s proposal when it meets today to adopt its rules of procedure and budget request for the new Congress. Currently, the Senate Finance, Budget, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees require nominees to provide tax returns as part of their rules.

“If people want the honor of serving in the Cabinet, they ought to be willing to assure the American people that they have paid their taxes,” said Brown. “This commonsense approach has already been adopted by three of the Senate’s committees. It is time the rest of the committees follow suit.”

Brown is a cosponsor of the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, which would require sitting presidents and future presidential nominees of major parties to release three years of tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics. 

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