Reed Begins Work on Ways and Means; Outlines Three Priorities for Committee Effort

Statement

Congressman Tom Reed has been named to the Human Resources and Oversight subcommittees of the Ways and Means Committee. Reed began work with committee last week and this morning outlined three priorities for his efforts.

"My overall goal is to improve opportunities for job growth in Upstate New York and nationwide," Reed said. "The government cannot create jobs, but it can create an atmosphere which encourages job growth. In order to grow the economy so Americans can prosper, we need to end expensive and ineffective government programs and remove barriers that prevent employers from hiring."

Reed outlined three areas of prime focus for his work on Ways and Means:

1. Streamlining the tax code to help job creators. "The practice of using the tax code to pick winners and losers has to end," Reed declared. "We must review and eliminate exemptions, subsidies, and loopholes contained in the 70,000 pages of tax code. Small businesses are the innovators and job creators, but they end up picking up the tab for all the loopholes."
2. Removing excessive regulation. "Over-regulation has a disproportionately negative impact on smaller businesses," Reed observed. "We need to promote ideas like the REINS Act which will require any regulation coming out of federal agencies which impact the economy by more than $100 million to be specifically approved by Congress. No longer can agencies regulate through fiat."
3. Repatriating foreign income. "Trillions of American dollars sit in foreign accounts because of the high tax on bringing that money back to the U.S.," Reed commented. "That money can be invested here at home in new products, new facilities and new manufacturing if we reduce the cost of bringing it back into our economy."

"Simpler taxes, less regulation, and more investment will encourage job creation nationwide and in upstate New York," Reed said, adding that getting people back to work will also ease our national debt crisis. "We're still above nine percent unemployment. Cutting that number in half will go a long way toward tackling the national debt."

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