ACTION

 

Thank you for your message regarding Senate Majority Leader Reid’s claims about Governor Romney’s tax returns. It is good to hear from you, and I apologize for my delayed response.

 

As you know, in August Senator Reid stated on the Senate floor regarding Governor Romney, “So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove he has paid taxes because he has not.” (Aug. 2, 2012, Congressional Record, S5903, 3rd column, http://1.usa.gov/NMfOBE)

 

I cannot discuss the merits of this statement because it relates to a political campaign, and by law campaign correspondence and official Senate business must remain separate. For this same reason, however, I am puzzled why Senator Reid used the Senate floor to address this campaign-related issue. In general, Senate ethics rules prohibit the use of official Senate resources for campaign purposes. It is unclear what the relevance of Senator Reid’s remarks were to the policy issues under discussion on the floor at the time. If Senator Reid’s statements constituted an ethics violation, I am sure the Senate ethics committee will investigate.

 

If you would like to discuss this matter further, you may contact Jerry Morris of my staff on any campaign related matter. Jerry can be reached at jerry.morris@coburnforsenate.com.

 

Thank you again for writing. Best wishes.