I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We

the People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.

The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America chartered by Congress

to disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.

And today we discuss a crucial issue, taxation and the Constitution.

The House and Senate are currently working to present a tax reform bill to the president.

But before Congress can discuss the specifics of a tax reform,

it must comply with a number of constitutional constraints, ranging from Article I's taxing clause and the

16th Amendment to the Senate's Byrd rule on reconciliation.

What are the constitutional constraints on Congress's taxing power and how can we understand the constitutional issues that the current tax debate will raise?

Joining us to discuss these crucial questions are two of America's leading constitutional scholars on tax law and the Constitution,

both of them contributed to the interactive Constitution's explainers about the taxing power.

Joseph Fishkin is professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, where he teaches

constitutional law.

He wrote the interactive constitution essay on the 16th Amendment with Professor William Forbath, also at the University of Texas

at Austin, and Stephen Willis is Professor of Law at the University of Florida 11 College of

Law, where he teaches courses on tax law accounting and finance, he co-wrote

co-wrote an interactive constitution essay on the taxing clause

with Professor Neil Segal of Duke.

Joseph, Steve, thank you so much for joining.

Thanks for having a. My pleasure. Joseph, Steve, thank you so much for joining.

Thanks for having it.

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