Morning Tax 

By Lauren French | 5/2/13 6:01 AM EDT

With help from Alysha Love

PAULSEN: SUMMER WILL BE FILLED WITH DISCUSSION DRAFTS, HEARINGS. Rep. Erik Paulsen is ready. Ready for more meetings, discussion drafts and hearings if the process could push lawmakers toward a true comprehensive scrub of the tax code — and he’s about to get this wish with the Ways and Means Committee slated to begin meetings next week. “I think these meetings are going to be opportunities to show where there is consensus, but there is still going to be differences of opinion, so it will be helpful to show everyone where those differences of opinions might be. It has been a helpful process for all of us to learn what is important to different members or constituencies. We need to come together and see where we can add some consensus and just move forward,” Paulsen told Morning Tax from a snowy Minnesota.

As lawmakers spend the summer in and out of D.C., Paulsen, who joined the retirement and pensions reform group, said there will be continued efforts to better understand the code — and how to reform it. “The chairman has been very clear that we’re going to produce a bill this year, a tax reform measure. I would not be surprised if additional discussion drafts were released that were products of the workings groups because those discussion drafts have allowed us to build a good basis upon some needed reforms. We’ll easily fill the summer months with additional hearings and some of the working groups actually are likely to continue to meet on their own,” he said.

####