Orrin Hatch: “this week, the Senate will vote on a budget resolution for fiscal year 2018. While there are many elements to this…”

“this week, the Senate will vote on a budget resolution for fiscal year 2018. While there are many elements to this particular resolution, most of this Chamber's and the public's attention are on the reconciliation instructions related to tax reform. Before I go too far, I first want to thank Chairman Enzi and all of our colleagues on the Budget Committee for their work on this resolution. Chairman Enzi has been a critical player in the ongoing effort to reform our broken Tax Code, and his work to craft this budget resolution and move it out of committee has been critical to this effort. For the next step, he is going to need help passing the resolution here on the floor. I think we will get there. Specifically, this budget resolution contains a $1.5 trillion reconciliation instruction for tax reform. That is a good number, putting meaningful tax reform within reach. As the debate over the budget and the instruction moves forward, I think it is critical that everyone understand what tax reform will do for our country and, perhaps more importantly, what will happen if we fail. Tax reform has been the chief focus of the Senate Finance Committee for years now. In the 6\1/2\ years that I have been the lead Republican on the committee, we have had about 70 hearings focused on the Tax Code.…”