4 • Valley Voice
Nunes
Continued from p. 1 exclusive group that included Trump’s three children and son-in-law and some of his closest friends. The only other executive team member from the West Coast is Billionaire Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, who was an unlikely, but staunch, Silicon Valley supporter of Trump during the election. There are actually two transition teams. One is the transition landing team that is comprised of hundreds of people working in Washington DC to staff the many agencies. Nunes is a member is the Executive Committee of the Transition Team that works out of Trump Tower in New York and Trump’s estate in Florida. This executive committee advises the president-elect on cabinet and other high level appointments and helps shape public policy for his first year in office. Because Nunes works in Washington DC, he participates on the team through private phone conversations with Trump and bi-weekly conference call meetings with the team. On December 16 Nunes flew to New York to work in person with the executive transition team on Trump’s tax policy. When asked how he liked walking the gauntlet of reporters. In his typically understated fashion he said, “I went in a different entrance to stay away from the cameras. I didn’t want any of that.” Nunes helps with many of Trump’s decisions but was tapped for his exper-
5 January, 2017 tise on incolleagues telligence, have been defense, and putting totax policy. As gether a large Chairman of tax restructhe House turing bill Pe r m a n e n t that they plan Select Comon introducmittee on ing to the Intelligence, House floor Nunes’ adin January. vice was He and sought when Speaker Paul deciding to Ryan startappoint feled working low commiton the main tee member principles Congressof the bill man Mike more than a Pompeo as decade ago. director of Nunes the Central initially proIntelligence Devin Nunes. Courtesy/Devin Nunes posed the A g e n c y American (CIA.) It was also Nunes who suggest- Business Competitiveness Act, focused retired Marine Corps General James ing only on the business side of taxes, Mattis as Defense Secretary. Both ap- not personal income taxes. Main elepointments need to first be approved by ments from that bill — which Nunes the United States Senate. called revolutionary, saying it would “do On the local front Nunes is focused away with complicated pieces of the tax on water. That focus influenced his ad- code and let business do their thing” — vice on who to hold the position as the were merged into the House GOP Tax Secretary of the Interior. Reform Bill. “All the West is concerned how Fed“The United States needs to fix its eral lands are managed. We were happy tax system then reevaluate how we go we got a Westerner in to that position,” out and make trade agreements.” he said. The new Secretary of the InteHe said the problem is that Ameririor, if approved by the Senate, will be can products are taxed in other countries Congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana. but then other countries’ products don’t As number two at the House Ways face the same level of taxes in our country. and Means Committee, Nunes and his Part of his work on the transi-
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tion team is walking Trump’s tax team through the bill and integrating Trump’s own tax plan. As for his first year in office, I asked if Trump will keep tweeting. Nunes said that Trump doesn’t always actually do his own tweets; rather, he has a team, even at 3am. Nunes also dispelled any rumors that Trump doesn’t receive his Presidential Daily Briefings (PDB). He said Trump gets the PDBs just like President Obama did. The problems arose, he said, when different entities wanted their material as part of the briefings, and when that didn’t happen, they spread the rumor that Trump wasn’t getting the PDBs. As for the future administration, almost all of the transition team will find a place in Trump’s administration except for two. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, removed himself from consideration early December, and Nunes himself prefers to stay in Congress to continue working on some bills many years in the making. President-elect Trump has lived and worked all his life on the East Coast, so it made sense for his closest advisors come from the same neck of the woods. When asked how a member of Congress from such a poor county in California was chosen to help Trump’s transition to the White House, Nunes said, “I don’t see it that way. Tulare County is a great county. I feel sorry for all those people who live in Hollywood or San Francisco. Those are the people who are deprived.”
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