SPRINGFIELD -- U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, said Wednesday that he plans to request the release of President Donald Trump's tax returns, if named the next House Ways and Means Committee chairman.

Neal, who currently serves as the panel's ranking member, told reporters at a Springfield news conference that he would use the powerful position in the new Democrat-led U.S. House to seek the president's tax information.

"Yes, I think we will," he said when asked whether Ways and Means will pursue the president's tax returns.

The congressman, however, said he hopes Trump will release the documents before any such request is made.

"I think it's is a reminder that it has to be done so that legally it meets the law. I think that there are some precedents for this," he said. "But, I hope that the president would do this on his own, largely because every president since Gerald R. Ford has voluntarily done this."

Congressman Richard Neal reflects on the 2018 midterm election in Springfield. Posted by MassLive on Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Neal noted that while it's illegal for any one member of Congress to release a person's tax returns, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman "has the ability to ask for the president's tax returns."

Although the Ways and Means leader can make such a request, the congressman offered that it would likely face legal challenges.

"I would assume there would be a court case that goes on for a period of time," he said.

Leadership and chairmanship positions for the 116th are not expected to be formally decided for several weeks. Neal told reporters that he's confident he'll take over as the next Ways and Means Committee leader.

The congressman, who became the panel's top Democrat in December 2016, said he plans to focus on health care -- particularly protections for pre-existing conditions -- an infrastructure package, trade policies and retirement savings, if named the next Ways and Means chairman.

Neal, an outspoken critic of the Trump administration's tax system overhaul, said he would also convene hearings on tax policies, as well as be "unyielding in (his) defense of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid."

Despite Democrats' winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Tuesday's election, the congressman said he's going to be realistic about what the party can accomplish on Capitol Hill, where Republicans will be in charge of the U.S. Senate and White House, by pursuing areas of bipartisan agreement.

"There are some opportunities here on infrastructure, on prescription drug benefits and to reset the trade agenda. There are some opportunities here for cooperation," he said.

Neal, however, said he believes Congress "has a Constitutional responsibility to oversee the executive (branch)."

"I think that interacting, finding principle where you agree on common ground makes a good deal of sense," he said. "But, I've also been through three of these tsunamis -- Bill Clinton in 1994, George Bush in 2006 and Barack Obama in 2010 -- where the voter makes a change in the House of Representatives. I think we have to, in some measure, reflect the emotions that were offered last night, but also a rejection of many of the policies that have been embraced over the last eight years."

The congressman's remarks came as Trump, at his own post-election news conference, reportedly warned Democrats against using their new subpoena power to investigate him and his administration's actions.

"If the Democrats think they are going to waste taxpayer money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of classified information, and much else, at the Senate level," he further tweeted Wednesday. "Two can play that game!"