House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority

As he takes the reins of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander M. Levin is vowing to raise the profile of a once-powerful panel that, in recent years, has been overshadowed by the ethics troubles of its previous chairman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel.

In one of his first interviews as chairman, Levin (D-Mich.) said that job creation will be his top priority in the run-up to this fall's congressional elections. But he said he also plans to wade aggressively into the debate over national tax policy and return his committee to its customary position at the center of the coming battle over tax reform.

"I don't think [the Senate Finance Committee] should run the show. Charlie Rangel has struggled with this," Levin said. "The task ahead makes it important that I actively chair this committee. On a really collegial basis, because I've always acted that way. But you can combine strength and collegiality."

Levin, 78, is a soft-spoken and genial lawmaker, a pro-union liberal who has represented suburban Detroit since 1982. His younger brother, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, making them the first team of brothers to simultaneously chair congressional panels in more than 100 years, according to the Senate historical office.

The team may not last long: Some junior House members are pressing for a younger, more business-friendly candidate to take the Ways and Means post when House Democrats select new leaders after elections in November. Rangel (D-N.Y.) gave up the chairmanship last week and, theoretically, he could reclaim it, though lawmakers said that would require Rangel to be exonerated in an ongoing ethics investigation into allegations that he failed to pay taxes on a resort home and to disclose more than $500,000 in personal assets.

In the meantime, Levin said he is determined to make Ways and Means the "focal point" of the policy debate. He said he plans to meet this week with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to work out differences between the two chambers over the estate tax.

The tax expired in December but is poised to spring back to life, at much higher rates, in January.

He and Baucus also are talking about two more jobs bills, to follow the two now pending in the Senate. The two panels must also reach accord on a plan to extend middle-class tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, which are scheduled to expire this year. Democrats have vowed to extend those cuts -- at a cost of more than $2 trillion over the next decade -- even as a presidential commission begins trying to reduce record budget deficits.

Asked whether Democrats can meet their deficit-reduction goals without raising taxes on the middle class, Levin acknowledged, "It's a challenge." But, he said, "it would be a mistake to prejudge what the commission will come up with."