House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith: Mr. Bipartisanship?

Speaking at a conference Thursday sponsored by the Tax Council Policy Institute, the reliably partisan tax chieftain struck a conciliatory tone in saying he wants to spend the rest of this year working with Democrats on a number of issues.

The Missouri Republican had kind words to say about his panel’s ranking Democrat Rep. Richard Neal (“effective”), Alabama Democratic tax writer Terri Sewell (“a jewel”) and especially Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance committee.

“We’re not from the same cloth, but I love Senator Wyden — I really do,” said Smith, adding they’re supposed to have lunch next Monday. “He’s a good, good man.”

Smith had little to say about the third reconciliation package House Republicans hope to put together and, at one point, called it “reconciliation 10.0 or whatever.”

He emphasized instead areas where he said he could work with Democrats.

“We can do things on health care, trade and tax from a bipartisan perspective, and I intend to do that in the next few months,” he told conference attendees.

“Everything that we move forward on Ways and Means needs to be bipartisan, because I want to legislate,” Smith continued. “I don’t want to just like pass things just to pass things. I want them to become law.”

It’s a notable shift for Smith, who was one of the architects behind Republicans’ hyperpartisan tax cuts pushed into law last year, and comes even as his House colleagues still hope to pass yet another party-line reconciliation bill later this summer, in addition to the one now pending in the Senate that’s focused on funding immigration enforcement.

Smith noted that he had just arrived from a closed-door meeting with Democratic tax writers to discuss cryptocurrency tax issues. He’s spent months working on a still-unreleased plan to revise the tax code to account for the rise of digital assets, though he’s said he won’t move it without support from Democrats.

Smith has also been pushing to move a package of uncontroversial measures aimed at improving tax administration.

Senators voted Thursday to withhold their paychecks during future government shutdowns, following a record spate of funding lapses in recent months.

The Senate adopted the measure by voice vote, slating the change set to kick in after the November elections. Under the new rule, senators will receive back pay after a government shutdown ends.

“This is about shared sacrifice,” the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), said on the Senate floor this week. “This is about putting our money where our mouth is.”

The move follows the record 43-day funding lapse last fall that affected all federal agencies. Congress also prompted a brief partial government shutdown beginning in late January and allowed funding to lapse for the Department of Homeland Security for another 76 days this year.

Kennedy predicts another funding lapse when federal cash expires at the beginning of October. “I’m very concerned that my Senate colleagues on the Democratic side are going to try to shut down the government yet again right before the election, to try to create chaos to affect the midterm elections,” he said.

Rep. Max Miller, who has been accused of abusing his ex-wife, is now suing her for defamation — a major escalation in an ongoing public dispute between the two-term Ohio Republican and the daughter of Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno.

In a copy of the complaint filed Wednesday evening in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and reviewed by Blue Light News, Miller claims that his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and her legal team made “false, malicious, and defamatory statements wrongly accusing [him] of being a violent and abusive husband and father.”

Miller, who shares a child with Emily Moreno, is also suing her legal team and maintained that conflicts with his former partner were, in part, the result of what the complaint describes as her mental health challenges. The lawmaker is seeking no less than $25,000 in damages.

According to Miller’s complaint, Emily Moreno and her legal team “engaged in a defamatory campaign against [Miller] to malign his character, undermine his odds at re-election to Congress, and falsely portray him as a violent and abusive father and husband” during the course of custody proceedings around the former couple’s daughter.

Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported that Miller was battling domestic violence allegations from his now ex-wife. The article included accusations that Miller threw boiling water at Emily Moreno in front of their child and published photographs of what appeared to be injuries that she sustained from the alleged abuse. Other news outlets have also written about these allegations.

Miller quickly took to social media, calling the Daily Mail reports “nothing but lies.” He also accused first-term Sen. Moreno of funding “his daughter’s malicious campaign to ruin [his] life despite his knowledge of her mental health issues.”

“Bernie, this must be distracting from your job,” Miller wrote on X. “These antics harm your own grandchild. Anytime you want to put a stop to this, you can.”

Andrew Zashin, an attorney for Emily Moreno, declined to comment and referred the matter to his own lawyer. That lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the senator also had no comment.

Now, Miller is insisting the allegations of misconduct have cost him “actual damages in the form of lost business opportunities, reduced campaign contributions to aid his reelection campaign to Congress, and other pecuniary harms that will be quantified in an amount to be proven at trial,” according to the complaint.

“Congressman Miller is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered,” said a Miller spokesperson in a statement, adding that the lawmaker was pursuing the lawsuit to “defend his reputation.”

Unrelated, Miller has also been accused of slapping another former romantic partner — a separate claim he denied through an attorney.

Miller is coming under the microscope amid a renewed reckoning on Capitol Hill over lawmakers’ unethical behavior, which has put significant pressure on members of both parties to quickly root out bad actors inside their ranks.

In the House, it has led to the resignation of three members over the course of five weeks. Former Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) resigned over accusations of sexual assault and an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, respectively. Swalwell has publicly apologized for his “mistakes in judgment” but vowed to fight what he called “false allegations” and Gonzales had denied wrongdoing but ultimately admitted to the affair.

Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), meanwhile, stepped down rather than face a likely expulsion vote after the House Ethics Committee found she illicitly funneled money to support her campaign — charges she has refuted.

Other lawmakers under scrutiny include Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) who is accused of various misdeeds including threatening to release a former girlfriend’s explicit videos. In an apparent effort to show they were taking the case seriously, leadership of the bipartisan Ethics Committee announced Monday in a highly unusual statement that it had already pursued several steps to aggressively investigate the allegations, including approving 20 subpoenas. He has denied wrongdoing.

The Ethics panel is also pursuing a case against Rep. Chuck Edwards over allegations of sexual harassment and an improper relationship with staff. The North Carolina Republican has said the “baseless allegations [are] designed to impact the campaign driven by those who want to settle old political scores.” But some of his Republican peers who helped force Swalwell and Gonzales out of Congress have indicated they could try to force accountability in Edwards’ case, too.