ALBANY, N.Y. _ Congressional Democrats are one step closer to getting a look at President Donald Trump's taxes.
Democrats in the New York Assembly approved a bill Wednesday authorizing the state Department of Taxation and Finance to share tax return information with Congressional committees as long as there is a "specific and legitimate legislative purpose."
The Senate passed the measure earlier this month and it now heads to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his signature. The Democratic governor has indicated he will sign the bill.
The bill, which amends state laws prohibiting the release of private tax information, does not mention the president by name and would only apply to Trump's state returns, not his federal ones, according to sponsors Assemblyman David Buchwald, D-White Plains, Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan.
Lawmakers narrowed the bill over the weekend, after concerns that the legislation was too broad. An amendment limiting the state tax returns that Congress can access to those filed only by individuals serving in federal, state and local elected and higher-level public offices was also being voted on.
Under federal law, Congress should already have access to Trump's federal returns, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to release the president's personal and business tax documents.
Mnuchin on Wednesday rebuffed claims by House Democrats that his refusal to comply with a congressional request for Trump's personal tax returns is a violation of the law.
"Absolutely not," said Mnuchin during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. "I have been advised I am not violating the law. I would have never done anything to violate the law. Quite the contrary, I was advised had I turned them over I would be violating the law."
The Washington Post reported a day earlier that a months-old confidential IRS draft memo determined that the returns must be surrendered to Congress unless the president opts to invoke executive privilege.
It remains unclear if lawmakers in Washington will take up the offer.
Last week, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal said he's not interested in the New York Democrats' legislation that would allow his committee _ along with the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation _ to see the president's state tax returns from the state Taxation and Finance Department.
A representative for Neal, D-Mass., cautioned that his intention is to examine annual audits conducted by the IRS on the president and vice president, thus avoiding Trump's criticism that Democrats are just trying to dig for dirt in his tax documents.
"This wouldn't matter for our purposes," spokesman Daniel Rubin told Bloomberg News. "The committee is investigating the mandatory presidential audit program at the IRS to determine whether or not the program needs to be codified into federal law."
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has backed the New York bill, saying last month that it "would make the work of a federal committee a little easier."
Republicans railed against their colleagues across the aisle, accusing them of ignoring the needs of New Yorkers in favor of targeting Trump.
"Senate and Assembly Democrats have wasted weeks on their singular obsession with getting a peek at President Trump's taxes, and in that time they've done absolutely nothing to help hardworking, middle-class taxpayers struggling to provide for their families and make ends meet," Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan, R-Nassau, said in a statement.
