After two years of delays by House and Senate Republicans, House Democrats are finally, finally taking action to address Donald Trump's refusal to make public his tax returns. Trump mockingly dismissed the long-established norm meant to demonstrate that a would-be president is not in the pocket of any untoward interests, coming up with a series of supposed excuses why he could not. As with much else in the Trump era, the realization that a president demonstrating he is not crooked is merely a norm, not a requirement, has left many Americans nonplussed.
Now that House committees are under the leadership of Democrats, House Republicans can obstruct no longer. Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Rep. John Lewis announced today the first hearing on new Democratic legislative proposals to require the public release of such records by presidential and vice presidential candidates in future elections. That hearing will take place on Feb. 7.
This does not address the problem of the current White House occupant remaining, ahem, resolute about not sharing that information during this term of office. The effort to correct that will be headed by the House Ways and Means Committee itself, and already progressive Democratic members are pressing new Chairman Rep. Richard Neal to more speedily demand Trump's tax records for congressional review. But it is a start. Trump no longer has a deeply cynical Republican Party positioned to run interference on each of his many scandals.
Committee attempts to so much as glance at Trump's returns, although allowed by law, are likely to be aggressively blocked by Trump's busy lawyers, and it is possible that the appeals process could drag on past Trump's actual term of office. Efforts to require that information of future candidates (including Trump, if he runs for re-election) via legislation are seen as both a backup measure and, of course, the codification of the previously assumed "norm." It is also very likely that Trump would veto any bill demanding he release those returns as a candidate, so consider this only the start of another long, slow, and heated battle. If nothing else, it will require Republicans to yet again go on the record as supporting Trump's stonewalling and alleged corruption, sometime between now and the next House elections.