President Donald Trump will bring three senators from each party to the White House Tuesday night to discuss tax reform with him and Vice President Mike Pence, but Sen. Mike Lee said he just doesn't know what will happen with the matter.
"What I do know is the American people are expecting and demanding tax reform," the Utah Republican, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "We have a tax code that punishes people for getting married and having children. I brought forward a proposal I've worked on with Sen. Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump that would end the parent tax penalty. I hope it's included in any package."
Lee voted against the Hurricane Harvey aid package after it was tied to debt ceiling legislation, and said Tuesday that he believes it's "bad policy" to tie debt ceiling increases with hurricane relief bills along with spending bills.
"When you look, all these decisions into the lines of accountability from each elected official, back to his or her constituents, gets blurred," Lee said. "That's why I think it would be much better if we broke them into digestible pieces and allow them to be debated and discussed separately, so the American people can have a say of what goes on in their government."
Meanwhile, Lee's committee has been hearing a number of nominees for federal court posts, including Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett, after Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., commented that she was concerned that after hearing Barrett's speeches, "the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you."
"This is a disturbing trend," Lee said. "Our constitution prohibits the use of a religious test to serve in a federal office. It's unconstitutional. It also has no place in our society. As a religious minority myself, I'm sensitive to any suggestion that someone out to be disqualified for made less eligible for a federal office by virtue of the fact their religious beliefs live strongly within them."