United States Senate Committee on Finance

==History==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Wyden.Lew.Hatch.jpg|thumb|Committee Chairman [[Ron Wyden]] (D-OR), and Ranking Member [[Orrin Hatch]] (R-UT), greet [[Secretary of Treasury]] [[Jack Lew]], center]] -->
The Committee on Finance is one of the original committees established in the Senate. First created on December 11, 1815, as a [[Select or special committee (United States)|select committee]] and known as the Committee on Finance and an [sic] Uniform National Currency, it was formed to alleviate economic issues arising from the War of 1812. On December 10, 1816, the Senate officially created the Committee on Finance as a [[standing committee]].  Originally, the Committee had power over tariffs, taxation, banking and currency issues and appropriations.  Under this authority the committee played an influential role in the most heated topics of the era, including numerous tariff issues and the [[Bank War]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=History of the Committee on Finance United States Senate|url=http://www.finance.senate.gov/download/?id=f057dc65-9c25-4ec2-96be-36c67490ecad|publisher=Government Printing Office}}</ref> The committee was also influential in the creation of the [[U.S. Department of Interior|Department of Interior]] in 1849.<ref>Simms, Henry Harrison. Life of Robert M.T. Hunter: A Study in Sectionalism and Secession. Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1935</ref>  Under the Chairmanship of [[William Pitt Fessenden]], the committee played a decisive role during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].  Appropriating all funds for the war effort as well as raising enough funds to finance the war through tariffs and the nation's first income tax.  Additionally, the committee produced the Legal Tender Act of 1862, the nation's first reliance on paper currency.<ref>Jellison, Charles A. Fessenden of Maine, Civil War Senator. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1962.</ref>

In 1865 the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] created an [[House Appropriations Committee|Appropriations Committee]] to relieve the burden from the [[United States House Committee on Ways and Means|Committee on Ways and Means]].  The [[United States Senate|Senate]] followed this example by forming the [[U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations|Senate Appropriations Committee]] in 1867.<ref name="auto"/>

Despite the loss of one of its signature duties, the committee continued to play a prominent role in the major issues of the nation.  The committee was at the center of the debate over the silver question in the latter half of the 19th Century.  Passage of the [[Bland–Allison Act]] and the [[Sherman Silver Purchase Act]] were attempts to remedy the demand for silver, though the silver cause would eventually fail by the end of the century.<ref>Sherman, John. Recollections of Forty Years in The House, Senate, and Cabinet: An Autobiography. 2 vols. 1895. Reprint. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968.</ref>  The committee also continued to play a role in the debate over income taxes.  The repeal of the Civil War income taxes in the 1870s would eventually be raised in 1894 with the passage of a new income tax law.  The Supreme Court's decision in {{ussc|name=Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.|157|429|1895}} ruled the income tax as unconstitutional, since it was not based on apportionment.  The fight for an income tax finally culminated with the [[Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act]] of 1909.  In order to pass the new tariff Senate leaders, including Chairman [[Nelson Aldrich]], allowed for a Constitutional Amendment to be passed.  Four years later the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|16th Amendment]] was officially ratified and in 1913 the nation's first peacetime income tax was instituted.<ref>Stephenson, Nathaniel W. Nelson W. Aldrich: A Leader In American Politics. 1930. Reprint. New York: Kennikat Press, 1971.</ref>

Around that same time the committee lost jurisdiction over banking and currency issues to the newly created [[United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs|Committee on Banking and Currency]].  The committee did gain jurisdiction over veterans’ benefits when it successfully passed the War Risk Insurance Act of 1917.  The act shifted pensions from gratuities to benefits and served as one of the first life insurance programs created under the federal government.<ref name="auto"/>

The Finance Committee continued to play an increasingly important role in the lives of the nation's veterans.  The committee helped consolidate the veteran bureaucracy by streamlining the various responsibilities into a Veterans' Bureau, which would ultimately become the Veterans' Administration.  In 1924, the committee passed a [[Adjusted Compensation Payment Act|"Bonus Bill"]] that compensated World War I veterans for their service.<ref>The Provision of Federal
Benefits for Veterans. House Committee Print 171, 84th Congress, 1st Session, December 28, 1955</ref>  This series of improved veteran benefits reached a crescendo in 1944 with the passage of the [[GI Bill|Servicemen's Readjustment Act]].  Senator [[Bennett Clark|Bennett "Champ" Clark]], who served as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Veterans, assured smooth sailing of the bill through the Senate.  The bill not only ended the usual demands from returning veterans that had been seen in nearly every war the US had participated in, but also provided more generous benefits than veterans had previously received, including funds for continuing education, loans and unemployment insurance.<ref>Bennett, Michael. When Dreams Come True: The G.I. Bill and the Making of Modern America. Washington: Potomac Books, Inc., 1999.</ref>

Not all Finance Committee legislation was as well received as the G.I. Bill.  At the beginning of the [[Great Depression]] the committee passed the [[Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act]].  The act greatly increased tariffs and had a negative effect on the nation's economy.  Following traditional economic practices the members of the committee, including Chairman [[Reed Smoot]], felt that protection of American businesses was required in order to buoy them during the dire economic times.  The effort backfired and the economic situation worsened.  The Smoot-Hawley Tariff would eventually be replaced by the [[Reciprocal Tariff Act]] of 1934 which authorized the President to negotiate trade agreements.  This act not only set up the trade policy system as it exists today but also effectively transferred trade making policy from the Congress to the President.<ref>Dobson, John. Two Centuries of Tariffs: The Background and Emergence of the U.S. International Trade Commission. Washington:U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.</ref>

The committee also played an important role in two major acts created under the [[New Deal]].  The committee received jurisdiction over the [[National Industrial Recovery Act]] because of tax code changes in the bill.  The new bureaucracy was President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s attempt to stimulate the economy and promote jobs for unemployed Americans while also regulating businesses.  The National Recovery Administration would ultimately fail as it lost public support, but the act served as a springboard for the [[Wagner Act]] and the [[National Labor Board]].<ref>Ratner, Sidney. Taxation and Democracy in America. Octagon Books, 1980.</ref>

Probably the largest and most lasting pieces of legislation shaped by the Finance Committee during the New Deal was the 1935 [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security Act]].  Once again, the committee received jurisdiction owing to the payroll taxes that would be enacted to pay for the new program.  The act was the first effort by the federal government to provide benefits to the elderly and the unemployed, leading to enhanced economic welfare for many elderly Americans.<ref>Swain, Martha H. Pat Harrison: The New Deal Years. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1978.</ref>

In 1981, a Senate Resolution required the printing of the History of the Committee on Finance.<ref name="auto"/>