Trade - General

This series contains memos, correspondence, reports, studies, polls, statistics, drafts and mark-up versions of legislation, full copies and excerpts from government and industry publications, and news clippings.

Material was compiled from 1980 through 1994 and concerns the yearly federal budget process, federal tax issues and revenue options, and economic and political factors that had bearing on tax and budget issues. The material reflects major shifts in the national economic, budget, and tax situations, as well as the Mitchell office response to the the rising national debt and the Reagan and Bush administration policies in taxation, budget, and economics. A major concern of the Mitchell legislative program was to support fairness in the distribution of the tax burden, particularly promoting progressive rather than regressive taxation. The function of the tax, budget, and economics advisor was to evaluate legislative proposals and revenue plans for achieving budget goals in light of the Senator's political agenda, track the effects of legislation on Maine industries and interests, and propose and assess tax incentives for national and state agendas.

In 1986 Mitchell commissioned a Congressional Budget Office study, "The Changing Distribution of Federal Taxes: 1975-1990," a study of the distribution of tax burden on different sectors of wage earners. The results supported his contention that the overall tax burden was increasingly weighted more heavily on middle-income wage earners than on the high-income.

Specific tax related initiatives of concern to the Mitchell office were the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (see the Housing series), the Mitchell Amendment to the 1986 Tax Act, the 1989 Senatorial Election Campaign Act, inclusion of provisions such as the Completed Contract Method, tax exempt bonds, and the Long-Term Care Amendment to the Social Security Act, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Acts of 1990 and 1993, as well ongoing yearly budget and appropriations discussions. Senate committees involved in different aspect of these processes were the Banking Committee, for economic stabilization and defense production, foreign trade promotion, aid to industry, money and credit, and international economic policy; the Commerce Committee for science, engineering and technology research and development; the Finance Committee for taxation and trade issues; and the Foreign Relations Committee for international monetary issues.

Robert Rozen was the staffer responsible for the economics, banking, and tax issues in Senator Mitchell's office. Grace Reef also maintained significant sectors of files, as did with Tom Gallager and David Ray.