June 13,2024

Wyden Statement at Finance Committee Markup of Treasury, U.S. Tax Court Nominations

As Prepared for Delivery

The Finance Committee meets this morning to vote on four nominations. James Ives is nominated to serve as inspector general of the Department of the Treasury. And Rose Jenkins, Adam Landy, and Kashi Way are all nominated to serve as judges of the United States Tax Court. I’ll have brief remarks on each nominee before I turn it over to Senator Crapo.

To kick-off the nominees, I’ll talk about the Treasury IG. The Inspector General is the watchdog at the Treasury Department, key to rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. The IG oversees a multi-billion dollar budget and some of the most powerful economic levers around.

Treasury has been without a confirmed inspector general for five years. It’s important that the person in this role is undaunted by political pressure and willing to tackle big challenges.

James Ives is a strong nominee who brings a wealth of oversight and law enforcement experience to the table -- and from all corners of the government. His three decade career spans work in the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the IG offices at NASA and the Government Publishing Office, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service. That broad experience will be an asset as Treasury inspector general.

Now, I will turn to the three tax court nominations. The U.S. Tax Court is the judicial backbone of the federal tax code. Americans rely on the U.S. Tax Court to dispute tax bills before they need to pay them. It’s key to making sure taxpayers are heard in a timely manner.

These three tax court nominees have experience in both the public and private sectors. Their broad experience will be invaluable to take on the role as tax court judges.

Rose Jenkins has 15 years of experience in tax law. Currently, she’s an attorney in the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel for procedure and administration. She previously worked in the Chief Counsel’s international office and also has valuable experience in the private sector and at the NYU Tax Law Center.

Adam Landy has served as a Special Trial Judge on the Tax Court since 2021. He also has several years of experience at the Office of the IRS Chief Counsel in Baltimore, San Francisco, and in the private sector.

Kashi Way is a senior legislation counsel with the Joint Committee on Taxation’s staff. During his 18-years at the Joint Committee, Mr. Way has had a major impact on just about every piece of energy legislation that has gone anywhere in Congress, as well as a host of other bills. This committee and our staff will be sorry to lose Mr. Way on the Joint Committee, but he will make an excellent Tax Court judge.

All four of these nominees are high-qualified for the roles they’re nominated to fill. I support each of them, and I urge all my colleagues to do the same.

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