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April 11, 2006 — When Professor George Yin was tapped
by U.S. Representative Bill Thomas to head Congress’ Joint
Committee on Taxation, Yin was already a veteran of Capitol
Hill, having worked as tax counsel for the Senate Finance
Committee about 20 years earlier. But Yin could not have
predicted all the headline-grabbing issues that he found
himself in the middle of. Even five months after stepping
down, Yin still has trouble giving a concise explanation
of what he did there, because he did so much. “The
job was so multifacted… All I know is that my everyday,
every week, every moment of my life was consumed by this
job.”
Yin oversaw about 70 staff in six different locations — primarily
lawyers, economists, and accountants — who work collaboratively
with members of Congress and their staffs on every aspect
of the tax legislative process, from developing tax proposals
and analyzing their economic and legal effects, to testifying
at hearings and markups, drafting Committee and Conference
Reports, and helping to draft statutory language.
The nonpartisan JCT staff is the principal resource on
all tax matters for Congress, serving both the House of
Representatives and the Senate. The biggest challenge for
any JCT chief, explained Yin, is finding the right balance
between maintaining the JCT’s nonpartisan integrity
by keeping a certain distance from the members of Congress
while working closely enough with key legislative players
to make the best use of the skills and knowledge of the
JCT staff . Achieving the right balance is difficult but
important, Yin said.
Holding one of the most influential tax policy positions
in the country, Prof. Yin was a voice of authority on the
tax implications of Congressional bills. As taxes have
gradually insinuated themselves into nearly every aspect
of our society (transportation, energy, healthcare, environment,
housing, retirement policy, etc.) in addition to the more
traditional domains of taxes (regulation of business, budget
policy, and the redistribution of wealth) it has become
increasingly unusual for Congress to take up an issue that
does not involve taxes in some way.
The JCT staff provides the final say on a bill’s
revenue consequences (whether the proposal will increase
or decrease revenues in the future and by how much). This
can be a highly contentious area with the fate of a bill
rising or falling based on the revenue estimate determined
by the staff. In addition, the staff carries out investigations
and prepares reports that can place the chief of staff
in the middle of issues that fill the headlines. For example,
shortly before Yin began his tenure, the staff investigated
and reported on the tax and compensation issues relating
to Enron.
The Congressional fruitcake episode
Yin took the helm of the JCT at a time when partisan tempers
were flaring on Capitol Hill. The Democrats were publicly
complaining about how they were being shut out of the legislative
process by the Republican majority. Just a few months into
his term, he found himself in the midst of a major partisan
imbroglio that made the front page of the New York Times.
At one of his first appearances before the Ways and Means
Committee, the Democrats demanded that a 90-page amendment
to a pension bill be read aloud (which fell to Yin to do)
because it had just been given to them the night before
and they had barely had time to look at it. As Yin began
dutifully reading the bill, the Republican chair attempted
to press on and override the Democratic request for a reading.
When 71-year-old Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.)
protested, Rep. Scott McInnis, a 50-year-old Republican,
muttered “Shut-up.” Stark responded infamously,
according to the transcript, “'Oh you think you are
big enough to make me, you little wimp? Come on. Come over
here and make me. I dare you. You little fruitcake. You
little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake.'' Recriminations
and mud-slinging from both parties followed for days and
the “fruitcake” episode was in and out of the
papers for almost a month. “I actually made the front
page of the New York Times – I am ‘the clerk’ who
started to read the bill. I was relieved I wasn’t
mentioned by name. I must confess that I started to wonder
what I had gotten myself involved in,” Yin recalled.
While Yin was chief of staff, he reported to Congress on
ways to help close the “tax gap,” the difference
between the taxes owed under the law and the amount actually
paid. Recent estimates show the tax gap to be in excess
of $300 billion each year, equivalent to the yearly cost
of the entire Medicare program. Yin and his staff developed
over 70 specific options to reduce the tax gap.
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Yin described
for Congress how various tax breaks could help stimulate
redevelopment of the area. He also worked on several high
profile tax bills, including the 2003 Jobs and Growth Tax
Relief Reconciliation Act, the 2004 Working Families Tax
Relief Act and the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act.
So why didn’t Yin become a high-powered lobbyist
after his stint as chief of staff? “I took the JCT
job out of a sense of public service during an important
and difficult time for our country. I also took it because
I thought it would be a personally enriching and fulfilling
experience.”
When it was over, “it seemed natural
to get on with my life, which is as a law professor and
not a lobbyist.”
A circuitious path to tax law
So how did Yin become a teacher? After studying math and
economics for his B.A. from the University of Michigan
in 1970, he spent two years in the Teacher Corps, a Great
Society program much like today’s Teach for America
program. It provided a small stipend for noneducation majors
to work in inner-city schools.
The program also paid for him to get a master’s degree
in education from the University of Florida, after which
he managed a day-care center. Then he put his math skills
to work as a computer programmer, before deciding to attend
law school.
In 1973 his wife-to-be had gotten a job in the Washington,
D.C. area, and Yin drove to Charlottesville with her to
visit the Law School, then in Clarke Hall. He spoke briefly
with admissions people, but he was struck by a big black-and-white
photo of the most recent class. It was made up of nearly
all white males dressed in shirts and ties.
“I remember saying, ‘I don’t think I belong
in that club,’ as we drove back from Charlottesville,” he
said. Reflecting on that moment, and the fact that he now
has “the very good fortune to teach here … says
something very positive about our society, about the change
that has taken place in really just a handful of years.,” Yin
said.
After earning his J.D. in 1977 from George Washington University,
Yin clerked for a federal court, practiced law in D.C.,
and then served as tax counsel to the majority chair of
the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, which had separate partisan
staffs for each party. “I feel very fortunate to
have seen essentially the same legislative process from
two very different perspectives about 20 years apart,” Yin
noted.
Yin often had the job of explaining complex tax laws to
legislators, and he always relished the challenge of explaining
complex things as clearly as possible. An observer remarked
to him, “I think it must be your background working
with 5- and 6-year-olds that enables you to speak so clearly
to these members of Congress,” Yin recounted.
A native New Yorker and lifelong Yankees fan, Yin drew
on baseball to comment on the perennial question of whether
the United States will ever make fundamental reforms to
the tax system. “As I told a group in Boston recently,
if the Red Sox can finally win the World Series, tax reform
can certainly happen.”
Now that he’s back at the School of Law, he soon
will be nominated to become the inaugural Edwin S. Cohen
Distinguished Professor of Law and Taxation., director
of communications at the U.Va. School of Law, at (434)
924-4513.
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