Ryan assembles team for tax-writing panel

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is bringing over three familiar staffers to be his top aides. 

{mosads}Ryan, the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee and the party’s top voice on budget matters, has tapped Joyce Meyer to be the Ways and Means staff director, Austin Smythe to be policy director and Brendan Buck to be communications director.

All three have worked under Ryan before, with Meyer being a senior aide to the Wisconsin Republican since he was first elected 16 years ago. Meyer is currently Ryan’s chief of staff, while Smythe is the staff director of the House Budget Committee, where Ryan has been chairman or top Republican for the last eight years.

Buck comes to Ways and Means from America’s Health Insurance Plans, but was previously a well-known figure on Capitol Hill as a top spokesman to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Buck and Meyer also worked on the 2012 campaign, when Ryan was Mitt Romney’s running mate.

“This group brings the talent and experience needed to help the members of this committee get our economy back on track,” Ryan, who has said he’ll decide whether to run for president next year, said in a statement on Monday.

“And they have my trust. We have a lot of work to do on behalf of the American people, and I’m eager to get started with such a great team.”

Ryan has set an ambitious agenda for the Ways and Means Committee, saying last week that he wanted to work to fix the tax code, bolster Medicare and Social Security, secure more trade agreements, and boost oversight of the IRS.

This summer, the new chairman also talked up his desire to streamline federal anti-poverty programs, an area where he might find more common ground with President Obama and congressional Democrats than on areas like the president’s healthcare law.

Obama, Ryan and top lawmakers from both parties have also expressed an interest in tax reform, but many Washington tax observers believe that will be difficult to accomplish over the next two years.