The House Ways and Means Committee on a party-line vote Tuesday defeated an amendment by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, that would have used a little-known authority of the committee to secure and review in closed session President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

As a candidate and now as president, Trump has broken with precedent by not releasing his tax returns.

‘I am particularly concerned about conflicts with and entanglements with foreign governments and potential violations of the Emoluments Clause," said Doggett, the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Policy. The Emoluments Clause is a constitutional provision that prohibits presidents, and other federal officials, from taking gifts or payments from foreign states.

Another Democrat on the committee, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., had sent a letter to Chairman Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, on Feb. 1, asking him to obtain Trump’s returns from the Internal Revenue Service so the committee could review them in closed session and decide whether they should be released publicly.

In his letter, Pascrell noted that Trump’s business interests are entwined with state-owned enterprises in China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Brady rebuffed that request Monday, telling reporters, "If Congress begins to use its powers to rummage around in the tax returns of the president, what prevents Congress from doing the same to average Americans?"

In offering his amendment, Doggett cited the opinion of George Yin, a professor of law and taxation at the University of Virginia and a former chief of staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, who in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post last week, wrote that certain congressional committees, including Ways and Means, have, since 1924, had the power to order the disclosure of tax returns, "so as long as a disclosure served a legitimate committee purpose."

Doggett’s amendment was defeated on a 23 to 15 party-line vote.

"I’m deeply troubled by this committee voting to cover-up important tax return information about potential entanglements of President Trump with foreign interests, including the Russians," Doggett said in a statement after the vote. "Especially with General Flynn’s resignation after his entanglement with the Russians, the American people have reason to question whether, on this Valentine’s Day, more than ‘From Russia with Love’ is at stake here."

Michael Flynn resigned Monday as the president’s national security adviser after it was revealed he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

"There is no issue this committee could consider that is more important than assuring the confidence of the American people in our democracy – that our system of checks and balances truly works," Doggett said.