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Grassley, Sessions to Obama: DOJ Needs ?Top Tax Cop?

By Andrew Ramonas

Senate Republicans urged President Barack Obama to name a new nominee to lead the Justice Department Tax Division after the White House said it will not re-nominate its previous choice for the post.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that the nominee should be “qualified to enforce our criminal tax laws and oversee complex tax cases, including tax shelter cases.” Mary L. Smith, whose nomination was returned twice by the Senate, faced stiff opposition from Republicans, who were concerned about her lack of tax law experience. She was a partner at the Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman LLP and former in-house counsel to Tyco International Ltd., the international security products and services conglomerate.

?There hasn?t been a top tax cop on the beat since the President took office,” Grassley said. “It raises questions of how serious the Administration is about tax fraud.”

The president initially nominated Smith for the post in April 2009. The Senate Judiciary Committee first approved her in June 2009 without any backing from Republicans, including Grassley, who sits on the panel. Her nomination was sent back to the White House for the first time in December. Obama re-nominated her in January, and she was reported out of committee again in February with no Republican support.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was glad the president did not re-nominate Smith, who is currently Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Tony West of the Civil Division.

“The Tax Division chief has to have a judgment and experience in taxes — in my opinion — to decide various tough issues,” Sessions said Thursday.

Full post as published by Main Justice on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).