Senate Holds Hearing Today on Lessons from the Tax Reform Act of 1986

The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on Tax Reform: Lessons from the Tax Reform Act of 1986 today at 10:00 a.m. EST:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will convene a hearing [today] to examine the lessons from the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and look at ideas for tax reform that will make the code simpler and fairer, while helping American businesses compete in the global economy. ...

Baucus has said the U.S. tax code is in need of comprehensive reform and that he intends to begin examining major areas in need of consideration ahead of that effort. This hearing is the first in a series of hearings the Chairman plans to examine issues related to reform. Witnesses at Thursday’s hearing have a wealth of experience with both tax policy and tax reform.

Witnesses will include former U.S. Congressman Dick Gephardt, who served on the House Ways and Means Committee during the 1986 tax reform effort, and later as House Majority Leader; former U.S. Congressman Bill Archer who also served on the House Ways and Means Committee during tax reform, and later as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee; Buck Chapoton, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy under President Reagan between 1981 and 1984; and Randall Weiss, who served the Joint Committee on Taxation as an economist between 1977 and 1989 and served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Committee during tax reform.