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Sen. Wyden seeks additional information on how administration handled response to Congress

“To my knowledge, since at least 1955, when the authority to respond to section 6103 requests was delegated to the IRS Commissioner, no Treasury Secretary has taken control of the response or questioned the legitimacy of the Chairman’s purpose,” Mr. Wyden wrote. “Accordingly, I am concerned that you are failing to apply the law consistently with the statutory text and with longstanding practice.”

Mr. Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig are scheduled to testify at a Senate committee Wednesday on the Treasury and IRS budget requests.

Under the statute, the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” any requested returns. In his letter, Mr. Wyden points to previous administrations’ responses to congressional inquiries into Enron Corp., the activist group Acorn and IRS scrutiny of conservative nonprofit groups, writing that he is unaware of previous attempts by administrations to question congressional authority.

.. Mr. Mnuchin has argued that the request for six years of Mr. Trump’s tax returns and audit records exceeds Congress’s constitutional powers. He has refused to turn those documents over to Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, contending that Mr. Neal lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.

Mr. Neal issued a subpoena for the documents last week, and Mr. Mnuchin faces a Friday deadline to comply. Democrats expect the dispute to head to the federal courts.