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In a speech at the US Chamber of Commerce, House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R – Texas) indicated that, by June this year, the Committee intends "to produce a consensus blueprint for comprehensive pro-growth tax reform."

He assured his audience "that Ways and Means Republicans are serious about reforming our broken tax code. … Over the past years we've deliberately laid the foundation for a new tax code in 2017."

Brady indicated that the Committee is moving forward on a reformed tax code that must be "simpler, fairer, and flatter;" must lower rates "by closing loopholes and eliminating special interest provisions;" must provide a competitive tax system for businesses, including "a fair and competitive tax rate;" must "stop encouraging the shift of jobs overseas;" and must "replace the current outdated world-wide tax system with a permanent modern territorial-type system."

"A 21st century tax system should not raise taxes to bail out Washington's spending problem," he stressed. "This is all about growing the economy, not growing government."

He confirmed that the Committee is "looking at tax reform with fresh eyes, examining the whole range of tax ideas – consumption tax, cash flow tax, reformed income tax, and any other approach that will be pro-growth."

Brady also noted how, in the meantime, international tax developments are attracting the Committee's attention. "We're also looking at how other countries are taking actions with their tax systems that disproportionally burden American global businesses and ultimately, our workers," he said. "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in its base erosion and profit shifting project has advanced ideas that will make it harder for our companies to compete and grow."

In addition, he added, "the European Union state-aid investigations also threaten to impose retroactive taxes going back ten years on American businesses. We cannot allow American taxpayers to foot the bill for tax revenue grabs in Europe and elsewhere."

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