Marc Gerson was quoted regarding the debate over whether to pass "tax extenders" temporarily or permanently. "There are members who believe that these extenders are important," Gerson said, "and we should address them on a timely basis and that it should be a priority." There is "also a wide group of members who view extenders as a distraction to the overhaul of our entire tax code. There are different philosophies and approaches to tax reform, and that's something that could play out over the next year," he added. Lawmakers are currently meeting with key stakeholders to determine how different proposals for addressing the tax extenders would impact different parties.

Ways and Means Committee members are evaluating each expired tax break individually which plays into Chairman Dave Camp's plan of tying the extenders to broader tax reform. "Let's look at these on an individual basis, and if they have merit, we'll strive to make them permanent," Gerson said. "It's a much more tax-reform friendly environment." Despite Camp's efforts to link the extenders and tax reform debates, many experts still view the two issues as separate battles. It remains undetermined whether Camp's strategy will work, but his process could take the extenders debate into election season, Gerson said. "You would hope there's an urgency to get this done quicker, but I don’t know whether that's realistic," he said. "Conventional wisdom is that this is a lame duck item, the time and scope of a lame duck session is always a wild card based on how the election goes, what really needs to get done and how mad people are at each other after the election."