[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 140 (Thursday, September 15, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5813-S5814]
UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 2979
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.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules
and Administration be discharged from further consideration of S. 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.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The majority whip.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, reserving the right to object--if my
friend from Oregon wants to discuss transparency and bring the
Presidential election to the floor of the U.S. Senate, I think the
person we should start with is the former Secretary of State. She has
had, to put it charitably, innumerable challenges on the topic of
transparency.
Let's just look at one. All we need to do is look at the way she
exposed some of our Nation's most highly classified information by
setting up a private email server in her home. The ensuing
investigation produced nothing but stonewalling, obfuscation, and
misleading statements she made to the American public.
When FBI Director James Comey announced the agency was closing the
investigation, his statements made clear that Hillary Clinton had not
been telling the truth. She did send and she did receive classified
information, again, at some of the various highest levels. Director
Comey said she and her staff who aided and abetted her were ``extremely
careless in their handling of this highly sensitive information.''
In response, I have introduced legislation with the junior Senator
from Colorado, Senator Gardner, to help hold her and her staff
accountable. The bill is called the Trust Act and it would revoke the
security clearance of any person found to have been extremely careless
in the handling of classified information, and it would keep them from
receiving a security clearance in the future. It would also clarify
that when someone has been found by investigators to have been
extremely careless in handling classified information, that is
tantamount to gross negligence.
So I would ask the Senator from Oregon to modify his request so S.
2979 and S. 3135 be discharged from their respective committees and the
Senate proceed to their immediate consideration. I would ask unanimous
consent that the bills be read a third time and passed and that the
motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator so modify his request?
Mr. WYDEN. Reserving the right to object----
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
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
[[Page S5814]]
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. For that
reason, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Is there objection to the original request?
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I join with Senator Wyden in my deep
disappointment that the Republicans have objected to the continuation
of a policy that has voluntarily been done for 40 years; that is, those
who are running for President of the United States release their tax
returns. I want to underscore a couple of points that were made by
Senator Wyden. I thank him very much for his leadership on this issue.
I just came from a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee--where I have the privilege of being the ranking Democrat--on
Afghanistan. A large part of that hearing dealt with transparency, good
governance, corruption, and anti-corruption. That is a key fundamental
for Afghans' success. This morning I also had a chance to meet with the
new leader of Burma. She has tremendous challenges in that emerging
country. Transparency and anti-corruption are critically important to
the success of that democracy.
When the United States stands internationally for good governance,
anti-corruption, and transparency, we first have to deal with our
issues at home. It is hard for us to demand transparency globally when
we ourselves fall victim to the failure to make information available
to the public that they desperately need. Let me tell you why that is
important. This is not theoretical. The Panama Papers indicate that
heads of state--current heads of state and former heads of state--have
used ways to avoid public disclosure of the gains of their office, the
connections they have had.
There is a reason why for 40 years we have seen the release of tax
returns by those running for President. Before they vote, the public
has a right to know about the potential conflicts that individual
brings to the Office of the Presidency, the highest office in the land.
Senator Wyden pointed out accurately that that tax return could very
well show international contacts, international business, and offshore
activity that the public has a right to have debated during the course
of the campaign. It may show a Presidential candidate's use of the
provisions within our Tax Code to pay a different tax rate or no taxes
at all. The public has a right to know that before they cast their vote
so they can ask questions about that. The tax return may show that
certain statements made in regard to the use of charities are either
appropriate or not appropriate. They have the right to debate that
before they cast their vote.
Senator Wyden's bill carries out current practice. I don't think
anyone thought 6 months ago that someone would step forward to run for
the Presidency of the United States and accept the nomination of a
major political party without disclosing their tax returns. I don't
think any of us thought that was at issue.
Senator Wyden has been very patient with this bill. We have given all
the Presidential candidates that opportunity. Secretary Clinton has
disclosed her tax returns. Secretary Clinton has made available her
emails through appropriate channels. That has been done. That
transparency has been made. But there is a person running on the
Republican side who has refused to disclose his tax returns. That is
wrong. That denies the American people the transparency they need to
judge the candidates and to engage in political discourse during the
campaign, which is critically important to their decision as to who the
next President of the United States should be.
I am extremely disappointed that there has been an objection to
Senator Wyden's request that we require those who want to be President
of the United States--the highest office in this land, the highest
office in the free world--to disclose their tax returns.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 140 (Thursday, September 15, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5814-S5815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRESIDENTIAL TAX TRANSPARENCY ACT
Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I am on the floor today to talk about
the Presidential Tax Transparency Act. It is a simple proposal that
would require every Presidential candidate of a major party to release
their tax returns. Hillary Clinton has already done it. In fact, every
single general election candidate in the past nine elections has done
it.
I will be honest. This is not the kind of legislation that I thought
Congress would ever need to pass, but, like a lot of people, I never
thought that someone like Donald Trump would be the nominee of a major
political party. Donald Trump makes a big show, strutting around,
pretending to be tough, but he is too chicken to show his tax returns
to the American people. He has had a million excuses, but we all know
why Donald Trump isn't releasing his taxes. He is hiding something.
For a long time I wasn't sure what he was hiding. But thanks to the
tireless work of journalists and experts, we at least have some clues
about what he is hiding. We don't know everything, but slowly some of
his secrets are starting to leak to the public, and they are not
pretty.
Let's start with the tax scams that we know about. Here are just
three of them.
The first scam is claiming tax credits for homeowners who make less
than $500,000 a year. He wasn't eligible, so he lied--nothing fancy.
Eventually, the press caught wind of it, and Trump paid up. And if he
hadn't been caught, he would still be lying about it today.
Here is another Trump tax scam. Scoop up hundreds of millions of
dollars in real estate developer subsidies, then skip out on paying any
income taxes. In 1978, 1979, 1991, and 1993, Trump paid zero dollars in
income taxes--zero, and that is not a comprehensive list of his zero-
tax years. It is just the years when, for one reason or another, his
tax returns were public.
Here is the third Trump tax scam. In this campaign, Trump claims the
charitable deduction when he gives money to his own foundation, and
then he uses that foundation for personal expenses and campaign
fundraising.
That is just the stuff we know about. So how bad are the things we
don't know about? The American people should see Donald Trump's tax
returns so they can decide for themselves if his shameful and, in some
cases, illegal behavior disqualifies him from being President.
The tax scams are awful, but they are a sideshow compared to what
else is probably tucked away in his tax returns. Those tax returns
would show his personal deals with foreign governments, arrangements
that could put him in direct conflict with American interests.
We already know about some of Trump's foreign dealings. We know he
has gotten Russian oligarchs with close ties to Vladimir Putin to fund
his businesses. Is he still doing that?
We know he has financial ties to political dynasties in Turkey. We
know he is wrapped up in aggressive pipeline plans in North and East
India.
The list of countries where Trump has financial conflicts is
staggering: South Korea, India, Turkey, Libya, Russia, Ukraine, United
Arab Emirates.
Remember the Libyan dictator Qadhafi. Back in 2009, Trump was set to
lease his own estate to the dictator,
[[Page S5815]]
but local protests shut that down. So who else has he been leasing his
home to--Putin? I mean, maybe Trump's next business will be Airbnb for
dictators.
Tax returns will not tell us everything, but we know that they will
tell us something about what Trump is hiding. Donald Trump praises
brutal dictators and murderers. He threatens our allies. He denigrates
democracy right here at home. He is right out front with all of that
stuff.
What is so bad that Donald Trump has to hide it? Would his tax
returns show how deeply Donald Trump's personal, financial interests
run directly counter to the national interests of the United States of
America?
It is 8 weeks before a national election. Everyone wants Donald Trump
to do what other candidates--Republican candidates and Democratic
candidates--have done and disclose his financial information to the
American people.
George W. Bush's IRS Commissioner has said: Trump should release his
taxes, period.
The IRS Chief Counsel for Ronald Reagan has said the same thing:
Trump should release his taxes, period.
Ted Cruz has released his taxes. John Kasich released his taxes. Jeb
Bush released his taxes going all the way back to 1981.
Look, it is no surprise that Trump thinks the rules don't apply to
him; he never does. But the American people are not going to buy a pig
in a poke. He should release his taxes voluntarily. But since he will
not, then we should pass the Presidential Tax Transparency Act and make
him release those taxes.
No one knows what he is up to with Russia, Libya, or any other
country. Let's take a look at his taxes and find out.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
