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Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. speaks at a Capitol press conference March 1 to discuss President Donald Trump's tax returns as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) looks on. (Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
WASHINGTON -- With House Republicans blocking all efforts to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, Senate Democrats took up the campaign Wednesday.
Senate Finance Committee Democrats said they would ask their chairman, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, to request Trump's returns under the same 1924 law that New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-9th Dist.) unsuccessfully invoked in the House.
"Tax returns are the lowest ethical bar that you can have for a presidential nominee," said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the panel. "We're operating on all fronts. It's all part of creating a reform juggernaut."
Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said the Democrats should instead turn their attention to the economy, "the American people's top priority," while the committees work on overhauling the tax code and the Affordable Care Act "on behalf of the American people."
The two committee chairmen said in a letter to Wyden that there was no "specific allegations of tax-related misconduct." As a result, they wrote, "we strongly believe it would be inappropriate for us to use this authority to access and release the president's tax returns."
Trump has broken with decades of precedent and refused to release his tax returns, which Pascrell and others said would show whether he has financial ties to Russia or other countries. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, directed efforts to tilt the U.S. election to Trump, according to American intelligence agencies.
The president has turned over control of his businesses to his sons while keeping ownership. The head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter M. Shaub Jr., said that the arrangement "does not comport with the tradition of our presidents over the past 40 years."
Pascrell joined Wyden and two other Finance Committee members, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.), in pushing Congress to get Trump's tax returns.
"We need to know," Stabenow said. "More importantly, the American people need to know."
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), another Finance Committee member, is co-sponsoring legislation with Wyden that would require presidential candidates, and those already in the White House, to release their income tax returns.
"Senator Menendez believes the American people deserve to see a president's tax returns - including President Trump's," Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright said.
Reps. Donald Payne Jr. (D-10th Dist.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th Dist.) are co-sponsoring similar legislation in the House.
Pascrell tried to get House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to request the tax returns, and then forced a vote on the floor of the House, where Republicans, including all five from New Jersey, unanimously rejected his motion.
He brought University of Virginia law professor George K. Yin, former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, as his guest to Trump's speech Tuesday before a joint session of Congress.
Pascrell said he was sending a new letter to both Brady and Hatch with the signatures of 140 representatives, including Republicans Walter Jones of North Carolina and Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who voted "present" on Pascrell's resolution on the House floor Monday.
Neither Reps. Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.) or Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.), two New Jersey Republicans who have said Trump should release his tax returns, signed the letter, Pascrell said.
"We have several paths," Pascrell said. "We are not going to be turned back. It is the integrity of the House and the Senate that is at stake."
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.