We hope that you and those close to you have a safe and joyful Thanksgiving. Before the holiday begins, however, we wanted to reach out to you with a small ask.
Last month, POLITICO published a report that exposed the inappropriate ties that Rep. Richard Neal’s (MA-01) son, Brendan Neal, maintains with tax lobbyists. In years past, at the same time that Brendan received regular payments from his father’s campaign committee, he was also employed by several lobbying firms that had interests before the House Ways and Means Committee, the powerful tax-writing body that Rep. Neal chairs. The firms’ campaigns to influence Rep. Neal via his son seemingly proved effective, as they notched wins for their clients including the protection of the carried interest loophole for private equity managers; niche tax benefits for real estate investors, broadcasters, and trial lawyers; business tax credits; and boons to the insurance industry.
The Patriotic Millionaires came to the conclusion that the appearance of corruption was unacceptable for a man meant to lead the Democrats through the 2025 tax battle, so we decided to act. A few days after the POLITICO report dropped, our Chair, Morris Pearl, sent a letter on behalf of our organization to House Democratic Leadership – specifically, Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Katherine Clark (MA-05), Pete Aguilar (CA-33), Ted Lieu (CA-36), and Joe Neguse (CO-02) – calling on them to replace Rep. Neal as Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The 2025 tax battle was a main focus of the letter. Morris said, “Democrats must demonstrate that they are the party of the working and middle class and not the wealthy and special interests, and the 2025 tax fight will be the best opportunity to draw that contrast. Exploding wealth inequality has corrupted our democracy with nearly limitless money from special interests flooding our political system. If the Ways and Means Chair is a poster child for that corruption, and not a champion against it, Democrats will begin that fight on the defensive, and be unable to deliver on a central campaign promise to tax billionaires and corporations.”
Today, POLITICO upped the ante on Rep. Neal and ran another exclusive highlighting our letter, which you can read HERE.
That brings us to our small request. Before the Thanksgiving holiday, we are asking you to contact your US House Representative, share today’s POLITICO article about our letter with them, insist on ethical behavior by all Congressional leaders, and advocate for Chairman Neal to be removed from his leadership position on the House Ways and Means Committee. For your convenience, HERE is a directory of all House members and their contact information.
Since the election, we’ve been saying that no matter how disappointed or upset we are, we won’t give up in the fight for tax justice – even if it means taking a break from preparing our Thanksgiving feasts. We hope you’ll join us by calling your representatives today and demand that they remove Rep. Neal as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee.