Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2979

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President and colleagues, I come to the Senate floor today to discuss S. 2979, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act. I am very pleased to see that my colleague on the Finance Committee who is such a valuable Member, Senator Cardin, is here as well.

In America, nobody forces you to run for President. You volunteer to run for President, and this year we have had a bumper crop of volunteers. Since Watergate, there has been a bipartisan tradition honored by all candidates that they would release their tax returns. Every Democrat, every Republican, every liberal, every conservative has subscribed to honoring this particular tradition. Why is it so important? Tax returns say so much about a candidate for the world's most demanding job. Rather than the spin and deception that counts as messaging in a Presidential campaign, the tax returns are legally required to be an accounting in black and white of a candidate's honesty, integrity, and their personal priorities.

A return can show whether a nominee has intimate connections to powerful interests in foreign governments whose priorities run contrary to the interests of typical Americans. A return highlights important questions about integrity. Are you the person giving to charity or, as some have wondered, are you converting another donor's gift into your own? Are you using charities for personal gain?

A return shows if you pay any taxes at all or if you use the complexity of this Byzantine Tax Code to hide your income while working Americans have their taxes taken out of their paycheck.

Today--and I made it clear I am going to shortly try to get support for the Presidential Tax Transparency Act. Today honest taxpayers who dot every ``i'' and cross every ``t'' are faced with a major Presidential candidate who refuses to show even one single page of his tax return. This flouting of a tradition honored by every candidate since Watergate is just too dangerous to ignore.

So shortly I will ask unanimous consent that the Senate pass S. 2979, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act. It is a straightforward proposal. It says within just over 2 weeks of becoming a nominee, at a party convention nominees are required to release at least 3 years of tax returns. If they refuse, the Treasury Secretary provides the returns to the Federal Election Commission and they are put online automatically.

Since I introduced this bill in the spring, I was asked again and again what was behind my thinking. I remember talking to Senator Cardin, my colleague on the Finance Committee, about it. I said at home, through town meetings, and to colleagues here: Oh, how I wish this bill was not necessary. I think certainly millions of Americans say: Hey, there are lots of laws already. Why do we need more laws? I think we all could feel very proud of this 40-year, bipartisan voluntary tradition that all the candidates have honored. I have waited to bring this bill up in front of the Senate, until it was clear the tradition would not be honored this year.

I believe it is time for the United States Senate to act on S. 2979, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, to protect honesty, accountability, and transparency in our Presidential election process.

2979; that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. WYDEN. Thank you, Madam President.

First of all, it is with great disappointment and regret that I note that Senate Republicans are willing to throw aside a 40-year tradition of honesty and openness in our Presidential elections by blocking the Presidential Tax Transparency Act.

With respect to their own proposal, I want to be clear on this point. The bill that I have authored, S. 2979, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, affects all the candidates for President in an attempt to preserve the tradition of openness and accountability that is no longer being honored. The proposal offered by my colleague from Texas, on behalf of Senate Republicans, responds with a bill targeted at one candidate, a proposal that all our true national security experts have said would harm America's security. The briefing of our Presidential candidates is not just for their benefit, it is for the benefit of the American people so we have a smooth, democratic transition of power without risk to our national security.

This attempt to hide the violation of a tradition of openness and accountability behind a political witch hunt ought to tell Americans all they need to know about Senate Republicans at this point.

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