WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Ways and Means Committee focused on listening to the American people, strengthening working and middle-class families, and holding government and the Biden Administration accountable throughout 2023. As promised, the Committee’s policy and oversight work centered on protecting and advancing the interests of working families and exposing corruption and misdeeds on the part of the Washington bureaucracy and Biden Administration.

“The Ways and Means Committee hit the ground running in 2023 – refocusing the Committee’s work on the needs and priorities of working families, small businesses, and farmers, while simultaneously restoring its oversight responsibilities,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08). “Through a number of hearings – including several outside Washington, in local communities – as well as legislation approved, the Committee advanced numerous solutions to many of the challenges facing the country. For much of those, Ways and Means members were able to find bipartisan agreement on critical issues like health care and reasserting Congressional authority over America’s trade policies.

“A sizeable portion of our work this year has been in doing what, unfortunately, the Committee failed to do last Congress – shine a light of transparency and accountability on the Biden Administration. After two brave IRS whistleblowers came to the Ways and Means Committee, we have followed where the facts have led in an investigation into President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s foreign business dealings. That investigation will continue into the new year just as we will continue to fight for working families.”

Highlights of Ways and Means Committee Activity in 2023:

• 127% increase in Committee hearings over 2022.
• Clawed back $21 billion in IRS enforcement funds that would have been used to increase audits on working families.
  • Prevented the immediate hire of new IRS enforcement agents called for in the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Established IRS Whistleblower online portal for secure submissions from employees regarding any wrongdoing at the agency.
• Most substantial welfare reforms in a generation enacted into law.
  • Strengthened work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to hold states accountable for outcomes, lift more Americans out of poverty, promote work, and grow the economy.
• Enacted into law a trade agreement with Taiwan with overwhelming bipartisan support – reasserting Congress’s Constitutional authority over trade.
• Held 7 official field hearings and site visits in communities across America to hear directly from workers, families, farmers, and small businesses about policy changes needed to improve their lives in the Biden economy.
• Advanced tax relief for working families, Main Street businesses, and farmers while protecting American innovation and competitiveness with the American Families & Jobs Act.
• Altered the course of OECD global tax negotiations by exposing the mass giveaway of U.S. revenues to foreign nations the proposal would cause.
• Passed through the U.S. House solutions to lower costs for patients and strengthen transparency in health care pricing with strong bipartisan support.
  • In total passed 5 different health care bills to improve coverage options for workers, lower administrative burdens on small businesses, and inject greater transparency into nearly every corner of the health system to empower patients.
• Advanced legislation to make Health Savings Accounts more accessible and useful for patients and families.
• Gained full U.S. House approval of the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act to recover an estimated $100-$135 billion in unemployment fraud.
• Held 3 Executive Sessions to hear testimony from two IRS whistleblowers and consider evidence provided by them which exposed a two-tier system of Justice in the United States for the politically connected.
• Released over 1,000 pages of whistleblower-provided evidence and testimony.
• Sent 70+ letters to the Biden Administration demanding better transparency and accountability.