New Treasury provision continues Trump’s pattern of ignoring clear congressional mandates and benefiting the wealthy and well-connected
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said today that he and U.S. Rep Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) are battling back against proposed regulations recently issued by the Trump administration in the IRS code that further Republican schemes to undermine public school systems by directing taxpayer money toward private and religious schools.
In a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Wyden and Neal called out the administration for its blatant attempt to circumvent the clear rules established by Congress and funneling even more taxpayer funds away from public education and using that money to subsidize the private school education of children from wealthy families.
Treasury’s baseless interpretation of federal statute would allow married couples filing jointly to potentially claim double the credit that is authorized under the law, wrote Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Neal, ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee,
“This interpretation is wildly inconsistent with the longstanding treatment of other provisions that use identical or near-identical language,” Wyden and Neal wrote.
“This throws doubt upon Treasury’s interpretation of many provisions of the Code, creates a great deal of uncertainty in the administration of our tax laws, and could balloon the deficit,” the lawmakers noted, adding that it could increase the cost of the credit by an additional $150 billion over the next decade.
Wyden and Neal closed their letter by demanding the administration provide written answers and explanations to how the new interpretation of the law will affect taxpayers, how it came to be and was coordinated internally, which other tax provisions taxpayers might take a return position that is different from previously listed guidance based on new interpretations, and other pressing matters.
The entire letter is here.
A web version of this release is here.