Neal plans broad tax agenda if House control changes
Source: Politico
05/11/2026 04:45 AM EDT
Democrats appear poised to retake the House, and Rep. Richard Neal is quietly making plans. The Massachusetts Democrat has a clear path back into the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee and, behind the scenes, he’s laying the groundwork for a second stint as his party’s point man on all things tax, as well as trade, health care and Social Security. “There’s been conversations — for sure,” Neal said in an interview.
The last time Neal had the job, during President Donald Trump’s first term, he became the face of Democrats’ long-running bid to release Trump’s long-hidden tax returns — an ultimately successful fight that nevertheless came with loads of grief for the congenitally affable lawmaker. Neal has never been progressives’ favorite, and many at the time were openly — and loudly — skeptical that his heart was in the tax return fight, which ended up at the Supreme Court in 2022.
While Democrats were ultimately successful in releasing six years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns, the committee did not love how policing Trump’s tax returns eclipsed much of the rest of its work. And though Trump is once again bucking the decades-old tradition of presidents voluntarily releasing their returns, Democrats see a long list of more pressing issues demanding the committee’s attention.
Among them: how Trump and his family have personally benefited from government decisions; Trump’s unusual $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS stemming from the leak of his tax returns by an agency contractor to the media; the IRS’s decision to share taxpayer information with the Department of Homeland Security for its mass deportation campaign; Frank Bisignano serving as the day-to-day head of the IRS in the novel — and unconfirmed — role of chief executive officer; and the ongoing fallout from the steep cuts to the agency’s workforce last year.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/11/richard-neal-democratic-tax-agenda-00910345