Marc Gerson was quoted regarding the expected timeline for tax reform following the midterm elections. The Republican takeover of the Senate will alter the political dynamics of tax policy, likely starting in January when Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah becomes chairman of the Finance Committee. It's difficult to see a tax revamp becoming law before 2017 with a presidential election in 2016 and the absence of the issue from President Barack Obama's top priorities, Gerson said. "We'll see another two years of healthy debate and discussion and hearings and maybe drafts and work on tax reform," he added. Looking at history as an indication, two years ago, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R) and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D) made a push for a bipartisan tax-code revamp that dissolved. The disagreement between Democrats and Republicans on fundamental questions regarding the tax code remain.

This article was reprinted in BNA Pension & Benefits Reporter. It also appeared in Accounting Today titled "Tax Reform Tough to Accomplish in Republican-Held Senate," on November 5, 2014. Gerson's comments were also published in an article titled "Nuclear power, banks to gain as GOP take Congress" that appeared in Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, Utica Observer-Dispatch and Daily Herald on November 5, 2014.