House Speaker Mike Johnson is naming Boeing official Curtis Beaulieu his top tax adviser, sources familiar with the decision say, filling a big hole on his staff as a sprawling fight in Congress over the tax code begins to heat up.
Beaulieu, a senior director at Boeing, will replace Derek Theurer, who left for the Treasury Department — part of a recent wave of Republican tax aides to leave the Hill, even as lawmakers begin to zero in on what to do about some 40 temporary tax provisions slated to expire at the end of this year.
Beaulieu, who will start Monday, has been at Boeing for a number of years but has previously worked on the Hill. He was tax counsel at the Senate Finance Committee a decade ago and, before that, worked for several Republican lawmakers, including former Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), whose district is now represented by Johnson.
Beaulieu returns to the Hill at a critical time, with lawmakers deeply divided over how to approach the looming expiration of some $4 trillion in tax cuts.
Lawmakers’ tax advisers play a huge, if often unnoticed, role in developing tax legislation — trying to figure out how much different options would cost, educating colleagues about the issues and negotiating deals behind closed doors. Lawmakers frequently give them broad discretion to sort out the details of proposals, especially if they are complicated.
There are myriad ways, for example, that lawmakers could design President Donald Trump’s proposals to exempt taxes on things like tips and overtime pay, and lawmakers will rely on staffers’ expertise to help decide on the best approach.
Trump’s proposals could cost anywhere between $300 billion and $4 trillion depending on how they’re designed, Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said Wednesday.