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Senate Finance Committee Makes Tax Staff Changes

Posted on Oct. 18, 2022

A key figure in Senate Democrats’ year-plus effort to pass a reconciliation bill has been named general counsel of the Finance Committee.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced October 17 that the committee’s chief tax counsel, Tiffany Smith, will be the panel’s general counsel, a position vacated when Mike Evans retired at the end of September. Smith has been chief tax counsel for panel Democrats since 2016.

Smith has played a key role in every tax bill Congress has passed in the last decade and has led the tax team through consideration of historic legislation, most recently the Inflation Reduction Act” (P.L. 117-169), according to Wyden’s announcement.

Taking Smith’s spot in leading Democrats’ tax team will be Bobby Andres, who has been senior policy adviser. Andres led development of the committee’s energy package that was incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act and was involved in developing the investment tax credit, a key feature of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-167), according to the announcement.

Andres will be chief tax adviser, since he isn’t an attorney, but rather has a master’s in public policy from Georgetown University. He has been on Wyden’s or the committee’s staffs since 2013.

Taking Andres’s post as senior policy adviser will be Ashley Schapitl, who will also continue in her role advising the committee on communications. She led strategic communications for the committee on the Inflation Reduction Act.

Chris Arneson, credited with leading the development of the corporate alternative minimum tax included in the Inflation Reduction Act, will be the committee’s chief budget and economic adviser.

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