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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I come to the floor today to again voice my strong support for the nominations of Adam Landy and Kashi Way to serve as judges of the United States Tax Court. The Senate will be voting on their nominations soon, Mr. Way's in just a few minutes and I believe Mr. Landy's later this afternoon.

The U.S. Tax Court is the judicial backbone of the Federal Tax Code. Americans rely on the Tax Court to dispute tax bills before they need to pay them. It is key to making sure taxpayers are heard in a timely manner and an essential way to protect fairness in our tax system.

The nominees for these positions have never been controversial. And as I am about to make clear, both these nominees have the right experience and the qualifications for the job.

Adam Landy has served as a special trial judge on the Tax Court since 2021. He also has several years of experience at the Office of the IRS Chief Counsel in Baltimore, San Francisco, and in the private sector.

Kashi Way is a senior legislative counsel with the Joint Committee on Taxation staff. During his 18 years at the joint committee, Mr. Way had a major impact on just about every piece of energy tax legislation that has gotten any traction in the Congress, as well as a host of other tax bills. This committee and our staff will be sorry to lose Mr. Way on the joint committee, but he is, in my view, going to make an excellent Tax Court judge.

These two Tax Court nominees have experience in both the public and private sector. Their broad experience will be invaluable to take on the role as Tax Court judges.

I would also like to reiterate my strong support for the nomination of Rose Jenkins to serve on the Tax Court. She is a qualified nominee and will make an excellent judge. I will be working with my colleagues to ensure we can bring her nomination to the floor for a final confirmation vote as soon as possible so she can get to work for the American people.

Madam President, and let me just close by way of saying, I think it is particularly important--I see a number of my colleagues on the Finance Committee here--that we continue to work in a bipartisan way on this and that we make this experience more bearable and understandable for the citizens who are a part of it. And I think these nominees will help to do that.

So I close by saying, in my view, there is no question that these nominees are highly qualified for the roles that they are nominated to fill. We have worked on these in a bipartisan way. I support each of them. And when the Senate votes on their nominations, I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Madam President, I would ask unanimous consent that the scheduled vote occur immediately.

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