Democrat Neal Aspires to ‘Finding Agreement’ at Ways and MeansClick here to read the news story
Washington, DC,
October 17, 2018
|
Kaustuv Basu, Bloomberg
The opportunity that Richard Neal has sought for years may finally arrive soon: chairing the House Ways and Means Committee. But taking the gavel of the powerful panel may be the easy part. If Democrats were to take control of the House in the November midterms, the veteran lawmaker from Massachusetts would have to determine how much leeway party leaders would give him to set an agenda for the committee that deals with tax policy, trade, and Social Security. As chairman, Neal would have to be attuned to the party’s progressive wing, whose ranks are growing in the House, while trying to focus on policy in the two-year run-up to the 2020 presidential election. The Democratic caucus will have to have a tough conversation about what exactly they want to do if the House does flip, said Jim Manley, who was senior communication adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “After all, absent a miracle, the Senate is not going to flip. So it will still take 60 votes to get anything done,” he said. Neal has a more pro-business bent than many House Democrats, and people who have worked with him say his calm, thoughtful demeanor suits him for the job. Neal also likes to point out he has a history of finding colleagues willing to work with him. “I am hoping that leadership will consistently place members who are less interested in talking points and fiery rhetoric and more interested in substantive legislative achievement,” he said in an interview. “And I want to return to the art form of finding agreement,” he said. The Cook Political Report rates Neal’s seat as solidly Democratic, meaning that he should win reelection easily. As of Oct. 12, Cook reported Democrats the clear favorite to claim the House majority. Eye on PolicyNeal, a Ways and Means member for 25 years, has long aimed to rewrite the tax code. Like other Democrats, he found himself shut out of the debate when Republicans passed a tax overhaul in 2017 without having any hearings on the bill. But he still hopes to have an impact on that law. As chairman, he said, he would immediately begin hearings on the tax law, bringing in witnesses and academics who didn’t have a chance to present their opinions in 2017. Among his priorities, he said: a big infrastructure program and protection of Social Security. And he wants to “go hard” on retirement issues. While Congress watchers expect to see contours of an infrastructure package to emerge next year, Democrats say that using tax-exempt or Build America bonds to finance infrastructure may be an option. With respect to Social Security, Neal has been a strong opponent of any cuts, saying that he wants to protect and strengthen the program while fighting privatization. On Capitol Hill, Neal is known for his interest in retirement legislation, including ideas enabling all Americans to have access to retirement plans and searching for ways to help underfunded multiemployer pension plans. One measure that Neal introduced in December 2017 would require almost all employers to offer a 401(k) plan to their employees. He has a mixed record on trade, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was backed by President Obama, while backing free-trade agreements with South Korea and Panama. On President Trump’s tariffs, he has walked a fine line, saying, “we also need to talk about what these tariffs are intended to accomplish—and whether we think the tariffs will be successful at accomplishing their intended goals.” He has forged a friendly relationship with Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), said Janice Mays, a former top Democratic committee aide. “You can expect him to be fair, thoughtful and measured,” Mays, now with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said. First elected to Congress in 1988, Neal brings an immense institutional knowledge about the committee and the House, said former Ways and Means colleague Charles Boustany, who lost a Senate bid in 2016. “He is willing to listen to the other side and judge the argument on merit,” he said. Boustany, a Louisiana Republican who chaired the Tax Policy Subcommittee, worked with Neal on an “innovation box” proposal in 2016, when a bipartisan tax bill was still a possibility. That proposal would have guaranteed a lower tax rate for income derived from intellectual property. Boustany now is a partner at Capitol Counsel LLC. As for what else Neal might undertake, Boustany said, “If Democrats control the House, there will be a strong push by a number of rank-and-file members to launch a full-scale investigation of the Trump tax returns.” If Neal were to become chairman, he could ask the Treasury secretary for President Donald Trump’s tax returns and have the committee inspect them. He has said he would do so, and top Democrats like Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have joined that chorus. Finding AgreementNeal values government programs because of his life experience, Mays said. “Thanks to the kindness of his grandmother and aunt and the Social Security survivor benefits that his parents never got to enjoy, he was able to attend and earn his Bachelor’s Degree in political science from American International College,” Neal’s campaign website says. His defense of Social Security and the need to bolster it stems from those years, Mays said. Jim Leydon, who worked in Neal’s office in Springfield, Mass., as a district director for more than two decades, said that Neal “was really and truly a fellow that grew up with very little. And he has made something out of himself.” One reason for his success is his work ethic, Leydon said. “No one is going to outwork him.” Neal would be in Washington during the week, and then have a full schedule that extended to the weekends when he came back to his district, he said. Kevin Kennedy, Neal’s chief of staff when he was mayor of Springfield who worked for him later in Congress, said hard work and the ability to combine practical politics with policy were Neal’s hallmarks. Neal likes to say that politics can never become a substitute for good policy. “You use the politics to sell the policy argument,” he said. |