A proposal by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, would require Cabinet-level nominations under the committee’s jurisdiction to release their tax returns.
Cabinet nominees would have to submit the three most recent years of their tax returns to the committee before their confirmation hearings. Sub-cabinet would also be required to provide tax returns if requested.
The Senate Banking Committee was scheduled to consider the proposal this week when it convened.
“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,” Brown said. “This commonsense approach has already been adopted by three of the Senate’s committees. It is time the rest of the committees follow suit.”
The Senate Finance, Budget, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees currently requires nominees to submit their tax returns.
Brown is also a cosponsor of a bill authored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Presidential Tax Transparency Act. This bill, introduced earlier this month, would require sitting presidents and future presidential nominees of major parties to release three years of tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics.