ICYMI: At Hearing, Warren Presses Treasury Tax Policy Nominee on Commitment to Address Conflicts of Interests
Kies refused to recuse himself from potential conflicts of interest throughout his time in office
Warren: “If confirmed as the top tax official at the Treasury Department, you will play a big role in handing out more tax cuts, including tax cuts to your former clients.”
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Mr. Kenneth Kies, nominee for Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the Department of the Treasury, on his background as a tax lobbyist for large corporations and pushed him to commit to recusing himself from any matters that would impact the financial interests of his former clients while he is in office.
As Treasury’s top tax official, Kies would be responsible for developing and implementing tax policy and programs, negotiating tax treaties, and providing analysis for domestic and international tax policy decisions. However, as Senator Warren highlighted during the hearing, Kies’ former clients stand to gain billions under the upcoming Republican tax bill. If confirmed, Kies’ office at the Treasury Department would oversee the implementation of these tax laws and could potentially include tax loopholes that benefit these large corporations he once lobbied for.
So far, Kies has only committed to not working on matters that involve his former clients for one year. When asked if he would commit to recusing himself from matters that would affect the financial interests of his former clients for the duration of his employment, Kies refused to provide a straight answer.
This week, Senator Warren sent a letter to Kies urging him to mitigate the glaring conflicts of interest created by his background as a tax lobbyist for large corporations and his extensive investments in corporations that lobby the Treasury on tax policy.
“Donald Trump cares about one group of people and one group of people only: himself and his billionaire friends, so it's no surprise that he has nominated a highly paid corporate tax lobbyist to run tax policy for the American people,” said the senator. “We need a government that works for working people, not just massive corporations, their CEOs, and their lobbyists, and that's what's going to happen under Mr. Kies’ watch.”
Transcript: Hearing to examine the nominations of William Kimmitt, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, and Kenneth Kies, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
Senate Finance Committee
April 10, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In 2017, Donald Trump gave $2 trillion in tax cuts, mostly to billionaires and billionaire corporations, and now he's back for round two, this time a whopping $7 trillion in tax breaks for his rich donors.
Now, Mr. Kies, you've been a corporate lobbyist for nearly 30 years, successfully arranging tax breaks for Wall Street, Big Tech, Big Oil, and Big Pharma—you’ve helped them all. And if confirmed as the top tax official at the Treasury Department, you will play a big role in handing out more tax cuts, including tax cuts to your former clients. So, I just want to run through how this would work. Mr. Kies, you've lobbied for Microsoft for years. Microsoft and other big tech companies are now demanding tax breaks to incentivize research that they would do anyway, but the real kicker is they want those tax breaks, called R&D expensing, to be retroactive, incentivizing them to make research decisions they made years ago. And Republicans have said, ‘Sure, why not.’
Mr. Kies, do you know how much your client, Microsoft, stands to gain from just this one tax break?
Mr. Kenneth Kies: No, Senator Warren.
Senator Warren: Well, if the Trump administration delivers what tech lobbyists are clamoring for, Microsoft would get $11 billion to incentivize investments it made years ago. That's from Microsoft's own annual reports. By the way, that is nearly as much as the federal government spends an entire year on child care for all of our babies. One company, your client, $11 billion. So, let's try another one, Mr. Kies.
You've also lobbied on behalf of Pfizer, one of the biggest drug companies out there. President Trump has proposed slashing the tax rate for corporations even further, from 21% to 15% Mr. Kies, do you know how much your client Pfizer stands to gain from cutting the corporate tax rate to 15%?
Mr. Kies: Okay, Senator Warren, Pfizer is not my client. I closed my business on March 14. None of those companies are my clients. My client—
Senator Warren: I'm sorry, your former client.
Mr. Kies: Okay, former client.
Senator Warren: Pfizer, the one you lobbied for.
Mr. Kies: And Pfizer was a client over 10 years ago.
Senator Warren: Do you know how much they stand to make?
Mr. Kies: No.
Senator Warren: $4 billion from the Trump corporate tax cut. But there is more. The Republicans in Congress will set out the general rules for this tax giveaway, but your office at the Treasury Department will write the rules to implement those laws. When that happens, lobbyists will line up around the block to ask you for even more tax loopholes, which you know about firsthand, because you did exactly that after the first Trump tax giveaway. Now, you've committed not to work on matters involving your clients, or your former clients, for only one year. That means on day 366, while you are still in your job, you can go right back to handing out loopholes that could boost the bottom lines of Microsoft or Pfizer or any other of your former and future clients.
Mr. Kies, the American people would like to know that when you draw a government paycheck, you will be working just for them, not for your past and future clients. So, will you commit to recusing yourself from matters that would affect the financial interests of your former clients for the entire time that you are in office?
Mr. Kies: So, Senator Warren, you and I had a very polite discussion about this when we met, and I advised you at that time, which is what I will tell you in public. I will comply with the terms of the ethics letter, which was written by career experts on ethics. And I would also reference you to the Bloomberg article, today, in which Scott Amey, the general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, said the following: This is someone, me, who is taking government ethics very seriously—
Senator Warren: Very seriously—
Mr. Kies: And was making attempts—
Senator Warren: I appreciate that, but I’m running out of time here.
Mr. Kies: Well, I would encourage you to read the article.
Senator Warren: I will take this as a no, and the fact that you say it's okay with the Trump administration that on day 366, you will be handing out tax loopholes to clients that you took in millions of dollars from. And that you've made no pledge not to go back and make them your clients again in the future. That may be okay with the Trump administration. I don't think it's okay with the American people.
Donald Trump cares about one group of people and one group of people only: himself and his billionaire friends, so it's no surprise that he has nominated a highly paid corporate tax lobbyist to run tax policy for the American people. We need a government that works for working people, not just massive corporations, their CEOs, and their lobbyists, and that's what's going to happen under Mr. Kies’ watch.
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