President-elect Trump on January 2 announced Ken Kies as his choice for assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy. If confirmed by the full Senate, he will be responsible for analyzing, developing, and implementing federal tax policies and programs.
More specifically, Kies will be the point person facilitating the extension of expiring tax cuts in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA, P.L. 115-97), and in developing additional tax legislation affecting individuals and businesses. With more than 40 years of experience as a tax lobbyist and former Republican congressional staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee and a former chief of staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation, Kies has been lauded as a serious pick for the administration and will play a key role in negotiations this year to get tax legislation through Congress before the year-end deadline when many tax breaks in the TCJA are set to expire.
“Ken Kies will bring his brilliant understanding of tax policy and extensive knowledge from his work on both the Ways and Means Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation to pass solutions that put working families first,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) on January 3.
Other picks for key positions in the Treasury Department include Alexandra Preate for senior counselor to the secretary as well as Daniel Katz as Treasury’s chief of staff, with Samantha Schwab and Cora Alvi as deputy chiefs of staff.
In a related development, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) announced this week that the taxwriting panel will hold a hearing on January 16 at 10:30 a.m. to consider President-elect Trump’s nomination of Scott Bessent to serve as Treasury secretary. (Trump nominated Bessent for the post on November 22.)
Bessent, like Kies, must be confirmed by the full Senate, and the Finance Committee hearing is an important first step in the confirmation process.
Senate taxwriters will vet Kies at a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing.
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