News: Speaker Mike Johnson’s tax adviser Derek Theurer is expected to take a job in the Treasury Department where he would play a key role in shaping Republicans’ tax plans.
In that role, Theurer would assist the treasury secretary in coordinating closely with Congress on the GOP’s big plans for a tax bill this year. Theurer would also aid in Republicans’ agenda for altering the course of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s global tax negotiations.
Theurer would bring a clear view of the challenges that Trump’s tax agenda could face on Capitol Hill with a paper-thin House majority. The House GOP leadership has been holding listening sessions with members and working for months on plans for a sprawling reconciliation package that would include an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
During the Biden administration, Republicans railed against the course of OECD negotiations over a 15% global minimum tax on multinational companies. Redirecting those talks is also expected to be a focus for the Trump administration, as the president made clear in a day-one action declaring the deal has “no force or effect in the United States.”
Theurer has been with Johnson’s office as senior policy adviser since the spring. Before that, he was chief tax counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee under both Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and former Chair Kevin Brady (R-Texas).
When the Trump tax cuts became law in 2017, Theurer was on the Hill as a senior tax counsel in Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-La.) office. He was previously at the Business Roundtable and ExxonMobil.
Now Johnson needs to find a new tax staffer in the heat of the reconciliation fight.
The Treasury staffing news comes as Senate Republicans are moving quickly to get Trump’s pick to lead the department, Scott Bessent, confirmed. The Senate Finance Committee is voting on his nomination at 10:15 a.m.