On Monday, Accenture lobbyists Richard Grafmeyer and John Talisman met top tax counsels for Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, and Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Accenture lobbyists spoke yesterday with Montana Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Finance panel. The two have also met with aides to Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, Republican of California.
Mr. Grafmeyer, who once worked as a top Republican tax counsel on Capitol Hill, and Mr. Talisman, a former senior Democratic tax advisor at the Treasury, have met success: All but Mr. Rangel have agreed to include new language for Accenture in the technical-corrections bill that could be introduced by week’s end. “Clearly, this is not considered fair…in a time of war for people to be looking to avoid taxes,” Mr. Rangel said. Mr. Rangel and his staff have refused to participate in discussions on the provision.
Once introduced, the technical-corrections bill is expected to sail through Congress. That would represent a victory for a company that was portrayed as a corporate bad-boy on Capitol Hill as recently as last year.
I wonder who, if anyone speaks for the taxpayers in these closed door meetings! Mullins did an excellent job digging up the details on this.