Earlier today, the Republican House Steering Committee selected Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) to serve as the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee for the 118th Congress. Jason Smith ultimately defeated fellow Republican Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) to replace former committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) after he retired at the end of the last Congress.
While Buchanan was an early favorite in the race, Jason Smith ran a remarkably proactive campaign. Despite being only the fourth-most-senior Republican committee member, he was ultimately able to garner support from key members of GOP House leadership. Jason Smith also lacked notable public endorsements, with several other senior GOP committee members, such as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), supporting Buchanan.
Jason Smith has served on the committee since 2015 and was the ranking member of the House Budget Committee in the 117th Congress. In the 118th Congress, he will be required to vacate his position on the Budget Committee, leaving the Steering Committee to decide another committee leadership position. Like Buchanan, he has extensive private-sector experience and served as majority whip and speaker pro tempore in the Missouri House of Representatives before his election to Congress.
Potential Legislative Agenda. In the last few months, Jason Smith made headlines for comments that, if elected, he would be open to collaborating with Democrats potentially to increase the child tax credit or expand other tax incentives for low-income taxpayers if it also included a work requirement. He has also been a strong advocate for targeted support for individuals and small businesses, in contrast to traditional broad deregulation and tax cuts.
In the 117th Congress, Jason Smith introduced several tax bills, providing some insight into other potential tax priorities. This includes the Death Tax Repeal Act, a bill that ultimately gained 155 co-sponsors and would eliminate the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. He also proposed the Main Street Tax Certainty Act to make permanent the 20% deduction for qualified business income that is currently slated to expire after 2025.
Jason Smith is also generally supportive of broad GOP efforts to reduce the $80 billion in additional funding provided to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through the Inflation Reduction Act. Though these specific efforts will likely fail to garner sufficient bipartisan support, in upcoming bipartisan appropriations discussions, Jason Smith is likely to advocate for a reduction to IRS baseline funding. Notably, in opposition to the other possible contenders to chair the committee, he has announced that scaling back or repealing the recently enacted corporate minimum tax will not be a priority.
Changes to Ways and Means Membership. With the change in control of the House, the 25-18 membership ratio on the Ways and Means Committee is likely to be maintained in the upcoming session. As a result, several of the least-senior committee Democrats will lose their seats. Four Democrats on the committee did not run for reelection, and the three additional members likely to lose their seats are Reps. Steven Horsford (D-NV) and Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), as well as Del. Stacy Plaskett (D-USVI).
In conjunction, Republicans will add several new members to the committee. While there have been no confirmations to date, top contenders for committee slots include tax experts like Reps. Mike Carey (R-OH), Randy Feenstra (R-IA), William Timmons (R-SC), Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), Blake Moore (R-UT), Michelle Steel (R-CA) and Greg Steube (R-FL). In addition, Republicans are likely to select a member from New York, such as Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). Also of note, following Brady’s retirement, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), a fellow Texas Republican, will likely join the committee.
The official committee membership roster is expected to be announced in the coming days.
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