Missouri Congressman elected chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee

Jason Smith, a Southeast Missouri congressman, was elected chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In order to secure this prestigious position Smith defeated Republican Adrian Smith of Nebraska, and Republican Vern Buchanan of Florida.

“It is deeply humbling and an honor to be selected by my colleagues,” Smith commented, “With our new House Republican majority, we have made a commitment to the American people to build a stronger economy that gives everyone — not just the wealthy and politically-connected — greater opportunity to build a more prosperous future for themselves and their families. Americans also expect us to hold the Biden Administration accountable for the crises it has caused and to once again exercise Congress’ oversight authority which has been entirely absent under one-party Democratic rule in Washington.”

The House Ways and Means Committee helps oversee Social Security, unemployment benefits, and Medicare. They also have certain powers over all taxation and tariffs.

The congressman said, “Our first step is defunding the $80 billion pay increase Democrats gave the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents to target working families. But we are not stopping there. If confirmed, the new IRS Commissioner should plan to spend a lot of time before our committee answering questions about the leaking of sensitive taxpayer information and (its) history of targeting conservative Americans. We will make it clear to every IRS employee that the Ways and Means Committee welcomes whistleblower efforts to uncover corruptive behavior at that agency,”