Press Releases

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, Reps. Ron Estes (R-Kansas) and Carol Miller (R-West Virginia), along with Ways and Means colleagues, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raising concerns and seeking answers about the economic impact of the global tax scheme the Biden administration is negotiating with the OECD. After repeated attempts to solicit information from Sec. Yellen, Estes and a dozen other Ways and Means colleagues again voiced their concerns and frustrations in a letter to Sec. Yellen. 
 
"Secretary Yellen and Biden negotiators have put America last as they make tax deals that undermine our sovereignty and harm the U.S. economy and jobs," said Rep. Estes. "Rep. Miller and I are demanding answers and accountability from Treasury to safeguard our U.S. tax base from the disastrous tax scheme cooked up by Biden officials who, ignoring concerns from Congress, are putting the interests of foreign countries over the American people."
 
"To be abundantly clear: Congress controls tax policy, not the Biden Administration. The current tax negotiations with the OECD will effectively send American tax dollars to fund global socialist programs, instead of serving our families and funding our military. We will continue to demand Secretary Yellen stops conceding to unelected bureaucrats and undermining Congressional authority," said Rep. Miller.

Rep. Estes has been pushing back against this bad deal for months. In March, he penned an op-ed in The Hill, Yellen is giving away the farm through global tax scheme; questioned Sec. Yellen at a Ways and Means hearing; questioned treasury staff and discussed OECD Pillar 2 at a Ways and Means Tax Subcommittee hearing; published a Bloomberg op-ed with Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Biden Should Use OECD Tax Talks to Help, Not Harm, US Interests and introduced the Unfair Tax Protection Act to impose reciprocal taxes on countries that use the OECD deal to impose unfair taxes on U.S. business and raid the U.S. tax base. 
 
The letter reiterates requests for economic impact data on the OECD deal, underscores the negative effects this deal will have on U.S. competitiveness and workers and condemns Treasury’s contempt for the constitutionally mandated right of Congress to set tax policy for the United States. Highlights from the letter are below and you can read the full letter here.
  
We write to you today to express our continued frustration and grave concerns with the Biden Administration’s unprecedented and anti-America concessions throughout the OECD global tax negotiations. Rather than consult with Congress, you have chosen to go it alone, undermining American sovereignty and making commitments that you have no authority to effectuate.
 
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You have ignored numerous congressional requests for estimates of the economic impacts on U.S. companies and U.S. tax collections due to reallocating profits to jurisdictions based on end market sales rather than based on where the profit is earned, as required under current law renewed most recently during the Tax Subcommittee’s Hearing on Biden’s Global Tax Surrender Harms American Workers and our Economy5. The failure to provide these economic impact estimates can mean only one of two things. First, you are recklessly negotiating a novel global agreement of unprecedented proportions without knowing its impact on U.S. businesses, U.S. tax collections, and the U.S. economy. Alternatively, you are intentionally withholding the information from Congress. Either way, it is an egregious dereliction of your sworn obligation to confer with Congress and undermines your ability to best represent the interests of the United States and its citizens.
 
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Given the gravity of the issues raised in this letter, it is imperative that the Treasury Department engage in robust consultations with Congress, provide Congress with previously and repeatedly requested revenue and economic impact data, and reverse Treasury’s many anti-U.S. business, anti-U.S. tax collection, and anti-U.S. economy concessions.
 
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In addition to Rep. Estes, the letter was signed by the following members of the Ways and Means Committee: Reps. Carol D. Miller (R-West Virginia), Adrian Smith (R-Nebraska), Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), Drew Ferguson (R-Georgia), Lloyd Smucker (R-Pennsylvania), Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-North Carolina), Claudia Tenney (R-New York), Blake Moore (R-Utah), Michelle Steel (R-California), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) and Mike Carey (R-Ohio).