The House Ways and Means Committee

The Constitution requires that all bills for raising revenue originate in the House, and the committee charged with finding the ways and means to pay for government was the first the House made permanent, in 1802, after functioning as a select committee since 1789. For its first decades it controlled both taxing and spending and was the most powerful body in Congress. Spending went to the new Appropriations Committee in 1865, but Ways and Means kept the power to write tax law, the jurisdiction that defines it.

Every tax bill begins in Ways and Means, from income tax rates and corporate taxes to tariffs, excise taxes, and the thousands of credits and deductions in the Internal Revenue Code. The committee also has jurisdiction over Social Security, part of Medicare, unemployment insurance, the welfare program for needy families, and trade agreements, which together account for a large share of federal spending as well as nearly all federal revenue. Its staff works closely with the Joint Committee on Taxation, whose economists estimate the revenue effect of every tax proposal.

The committee has about forty members, among the most sought-after seats in the House because of the reach of its jurisdiction and the fundraising it attracts. Its chairs have often been among the most powerful members of Congress: Wilbur Mills, chairman from 1958 to 1974, shaped Medicare and the tax code so completely that presidents negotiated with him personally, and Dan Rostenkowski steered the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Under modern practice its biggest bills are often moved through budget reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered in the Senate.

Ways and Means wrote the major tax laws of recent years, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the tax provisions of the 2025 budget law that extended and expanded those cuts. Debates over the committee's work divide the parties sharply: Republicans generally press for lower rates and a smaller code, Democrats for higher taxes on corporations and high earners to fund social programs, and both have used the committee to protect favored credits and deductions. Its oversight of the IRS made it central to fights over the agency's funding and its taxpayer data.