Nomination of Lily Lawrence Batchelder

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, today, the Senate is debating Professor Lily Batchelder's nomination by President Biden to serve as Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy.

I am going to be brief, but I just want the Senate to know that Ms. Batchelder is an extraordinary individual, and I think she will serve in an extraordinary way when she is confirmed.

She is not a stranger to the Senate, particularly for those of us who serve on the Finance Committee. From 2010 until 2014, she was chief tax counsel to then Chairman Max Baucus. Members were working hard, looking at ways to drive a broader economic recovery following a recession. It was also a time when Members were interested in trying to drive a little bit of common sense--and I will talk about this more in a minute--into America's broken Tax Code.

Lily excelled in working with Democrats and Republicans to try to find common ground. She understood, from the time she arrived at the Finance Committee, that if you really want to tackle big challenges, if you want to come up with big solutions and make them sustainable, you have to find common ground.

After her service on the Finance Committee, Lily became the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama. She now serves as the Robert C. Kopple Family Professor of Taxation at the NYU School of Law. And one of the aspects of her scholarship that I particularly admire is her efforts to craft tax policies that bring more American workers into the economic winners circle.

She understands the Tax Code inside and out. She knows the Congress. She knows how the Congress and the administration work. And that is the reason why the Finance Committee approved her nomination with such a strong bipartisan margin, a 22-to-6 margin. Members of both sides thought that she would be a great addition to Treasury. The Senate ought to vote the same way.

Second, Lily's nomination has waited long enough for consideration on the Senate floor. Secretary Yellen needs a full team in place at Treasury. The country is going to be dealing with the aftereffects of the pandemic economic crash for years to come. There is a long way to go--a long way to go--before full recovery.

And when we confirm her, she is going to have a chance to really bring real insight into some big areas, like dealing with the climate crisis, the nationwide lack of affordable housing, and an increasingly unfair Tax Code.

And I just want to give you an example of the kind of issues she is going to have to take on. My colleagues here in the Senate have heard me talk about how it is that they are reading news stories about how billionaires all across America end up paying little or no income tax for years on end. Well, there is a little secret to how this happens, and it is because these billionaires are advised, in many instances: Don't take a wage; don't have taxable income; put your money into stocks.

That was what we did see during the pandemic, and they ended up with even more financial resources than anyone imagined, while we read the news articles describing how they paid little or no income tax for years on end.

As the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, a top priority of mine--and I don't see how anybody can oppose this idea--is to say that when nurses and firefighters pay taxes with every paycheck every year, that we should say that the billionaires--we are glad they are so successful--should pay their fair share every year.

So I have proposed a billionaire's tax to close this loophole of unfairness. It just seems to me to be a basic question of fairness, for people in Nevada or Oregon or anywhere else, that we all pay our fair share--we all pay our fair share. And that is just one example of what Ms. Batchelder is going to be dealing with.

For example, on clean energy, again, the Finance Committee wants to break some new ground. We said: Take the 44 energy tax breaks that are on the books--most of them are relics from yesteryear--and put them in the dustbin of history, and in the future have one for clean energy, one for clean transportation fuel, and one for energy efficiency.

And then, going forward, we will have tech neutrality. And we will say to every company: Everybody involved in the energy area, the more you reduce carbon emissions, the bigger your savings. The Senate Finance Committee never did anything like this in 100 years. But to really carry this out, you are going to have to have really talented people like Lily Batchelder there.

So she is going to understand what it means to make sure everybody pays their fair share, and that means billionaires are no longer exempt from paying their fair share.

She is going to be a huge asset as we deal with climate change. And, my God, if people think about the last 6 weeks--the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, and I know my colleague in Nevada has been clobbered by these fires; the storms in the South; and what we saw in the east coast of the United States--climate change has hit this country like a wrecking ball.

We are going to have Lily Batchelder confirmed, I hope, here very shortly. Those are the kinds of policy ideas she is going to be able to pursue.

The Treasury Department needs a tax policy point guard, somebody who, in effect--and everybody knows I went to school on a basketball scholarship dreaming of playing in the NBA. You always admired the person who ran the floor, who was the point guard, who really made sure the work got done and didn't really care who got the credit. That is Lily Batchelder. And if ever there was a person who could really help chip away at the polarization between Democrats and Republicans, it is Lily Batchelder.

I support her nomination fully.

Madam President, I have one more nomination to discuss, and I would ask unanimous consent that I could complete my remarks--and I will be brief on this nomination--before we vote.

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