(CNN) During a week where Congress is examining its own policies regarding sexual harassment settlements, one lawmaker wants to use Republicans' plans to overhaul the US tax code to eliminate a loophole for corporations to deduct expenses related to such settlements.

Currently, the IRS allows companies to deduct business expenses that are "both ordinary and necessary." Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, says that law is ambiguous, meaning the American taxpayer could effectively be subsidizing the cost of covering up illegal behavior, and he's found at least one Democrat who thinks this is an issue as well.

"It is just unbelievable to me that we would have taxpayers subsidizing rapists to give hush money to victims of crime," he said.

Buck is not pointing to specific examples but says the potential is there -- so he wrote an amendment to the House tax bill to close that loophole.

His amendment didn't make it into the House tax bill that cleared the chamber Thursday, but a similar amendment did make it into the Senate Finance Committee's version of the bill that advanced to the floor.

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