Today, the House Steering Committee elected Congressman Blake Moore (UT-01) to serve on the influential House Committee on Ways and Means.
“When I ran for Congress, I promised to be part of reversing our debt culture in Washington,” said Congressman Blake Moore. “Many of our nation’s debt drivers come under the Ways and Means Committee’s jurisdiction, and I am eager to get to work on how we can reform Congress’s budgeting process and responsibly steward our federal resources and programs. Utahns care deeply about our nation’s debt and deficit crises, and I have remained committed to making Washington’s approach to fiscal policy mirror Utah’s sound practices. It is a great honor to make history today as the first Republican member from Utah to serve on the Ways and Means Committee, and I thank the Steering Committee for this amazing opportunity.”
“Congressman Moore has been a fighter for fiscal sanity and common sense since he came to Congress,” said Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO). “On the Budget Committee, he was relentless in partnering with his constituents to find solutions to America’s unsustainable debt and Congress’s reckless spending. On the Ways and Means Committee, he will have the same dogged determination to build a strong economy for all Americans that will support working families, lower taxes, and promote investment in America.”
As one of his first initiatives in Congress, Congressman Moore established a Debt and Deficit Task Force in Utah’s First District to put together a framework of solutions for ways the federal government can grow the economy, save and strengthen vital programs, focus America’s spending, and fix Congress’s budget process. Congressman Moore believes conservative principles can provide the most effective roadmap to lift millions out of poverty, grow our workforce, empower families and local communities, establish a competitive advantage over our adversaries, and stand on the forefront of innovation and discovery.
Congressman Moore has worked hard to improve our country’s child welfare system, and he has introduced and cosponsored several bills to support children and families navigating the adoption process and foster care, including the Improving Adoption Outcomes & Affordability Act, the Connecting Forever Families Act, and the Protecting Adoptive Families from Audits Act. On the Ways and Means Committee, he looks forward to crafting more effective policies that give America’s most vulnerable children a better runway to achieve their dreams in a broken world. Additionally, Utah’s First District represents the second largest Internal Revenue Service workforce in the nation, and Congressman Moore is laser-focused on engaging in tax oversight and working with IRS employees in the First District on customer service issues.
There is currently only one member west of Texas on the Ways and Means Committee, and Utah has never had a Republican member on the committee since it became a state in 1896. Utah is the fastest growing state in terms of population, job growth, and GDP, and mountain state leaders are working to address the issues associated with dramatic growth. From addressing housing shortages to jobs, tax issues to inland trade development, misguided pandemic-era programs to flaws in the child welfare system, the Intermountain West will greatly benefit from Congressman Moore’s representation on the committee.
The oldest and most prestigious committee in Congress, the powerful Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee. It has jurisdiction over tax, trade, healthcare, energy, Medicare, Social Security, welfare and entitlement programs, and many other issues. The Ways and Means Committee derives much of its jurisdiction from the Constitution which declares, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”
