Herb Jackson

USA TODAY Network

The chairman of the House committee that sets tax policy on Monday rejected Rep. Bill Pascrell's effort to obtain President Trump’s tax returns by using an obscure power Congress gave itself after the Teapot Dome scandal in 1924.

"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?" said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. "Privacy and civil liberties are still important rights in this country and the Ways and Means Committee is not going to start to weaken them."

Pascrell responded: "I hoped and still hope that my friend Kevin Brady will put country over party."

The New Jersey Democratic congressman sent Brady a letter Feb. 1 urging him to use his power as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to use his power under a 1924 law to request the Trump's tax returns from the Treasury Department. Pascrell wants lawmakers to determine whether Trump's real estate empire poses any conflicts of interest or violates the Constitution's "emoluments clause," which bars government officials from receiving gifts or other things of value from foreign governments.

The issue has captured the public's attention, Pascrell said, with Trump opponents using social media and other methods to cheer him on and pressure Brady. At the same time, Trump supporters have said the issue was settled in November's election and Pascrell and other Democrats need to get over it.

Pascrell noted that Brady voted three years ago with other Republicans on the committee to release confidential tax information of 51 taxpayers as part of an investigation into the way the IRS handled applications by corporations for non-profit status.

"To minimize this request by calling it ‘rummaging’ is the height of chutzpah," Pascrell said.

The only other time the law allowing chairmen of congressional tax committees to see confidential tax information was used was in 1974, when Congress reviewed President Richard Nixon's returns.

A law professor who has studied the issue said Pascrell's request might be the best option for accessing Trump's returns.

"I would not expect it to occur immediately, but I do see a couple of ways it might arise," said George Yin, a University of Virginia professor who formerly served as chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation. "When you talk about integrity, about government transparency, those are issues of bipartisan concern. Indeed you can find many, many statements by both Democrats and Republicans supporting the basic principle of eliminating and avoiding conflicts of interest."

Yin said that compared with other efforts to get at Trump's taxes, including a lawsuit and separate legislation — which Trump could veto — the effort to use the tax committees' power has the best chance of succeeding.

“This is something that’s already in the law, so obviously the president has no ability to veto it,” Yin said. He also said any of the three tax committees can act independently, so the effort would not require both houses to agree to seek the returns.

The law, enacted after the scandal over leases for oil exploration known as Teapot Dome, gives the committees broad discretion to make the request and says the Treasury secretary has to provide the information requested.

But he said the committees are given the tax information to review only in closed meetings. To make the information public, they would have to decide to release it to their colleagues, something Yin said was not a given.

"It has to be in the public interest and it has to be a legitimate committee purpose," Yin said. "If the committee investigates and discovers there are no conflicts, the committee can make that statement and does not have to release any of the tax information. Whether the public would be satisfied with that, I don't know."