Rep. Summer Lee Joins Colleagues in Introducing the Billionaire Income Tax Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 — Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) joined Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), Congressman Don Beyer (VA-8) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) as an original co-sponsor of the bicameral Billionaire Income Tax Act. The measure aims to restore fairness in federal taxation by requiring the ultrawealthy to pay taxes on wealth gains as they occur, rather than allowing billionaires and millionaires to indefinitely defer or avoid taxation. 

“For too long, our tax code has benefitted the ultra-wealthy while working families are struggling to stay afloat,” said Rep. Lee. “Every paycheck a worker earns is taxed before it even reaches their pocket, but billionaires can sit on vast fortunes that grow larger every single day without ever paying their fair share. Billionaires do not need another yacht or another mansion, but the people in our communities do need housing they can afford, clean air and water, good schools, and safe neighborhoods. The Billionaire Income Tax Act brings us one step closer to leveling the playing field.” 

Rep. Cohen said, “The ultrawealthy pay very low tax rates because their affluence derives primarily from the soaring value of their assets. Our current tax code lets billionaires avoid taxes on gains unless and until they sell their assets. So while working families pay taxes on each and every paycheck or pension payment, the ultrawealthy can make hundreds of millions of tax-free dollars a year. Instead of all their billions going to buying superyachts, rocket ships, professional sports teams, and Twitter, it is time that billionaires pay at least a minimal level in taxes like everyone else. There is overwhelming public support for this proposal, which will close loopholes in our tax code and ensure billionaires pay a fairer share. It’s well past time to make our tax code fair. I haven’t asked him, but it looks like Pope Leo would endorse the Billionaire Income Tax Act. He recently did an interview with a biographer and excerpts were released on Sunday. Speaking of societal polarization, he said it is in part caused by income inequality. One factor, he said, is ‘the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive. For example, CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving. Yesterday the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world. What does that mean and what’s that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.’ I agree with Pope Leo and hope our bill will have a significant effect on what everyone seems to acknowledge is a huge and growing problem.” 

Rep. Beyer said, “The Billionaires Income Tax Act is a simple policy that would prevent the ultra-wealthy from paying a lower tax rate than working families – a crucial and necessary step toward rectifying the shortcomings of the failed trickle-down economics approach. Republicans continue to cut taxes for the richest among us while making it harder for working people to make ends meet. Our bill instead champions a fair tax policy that not only places our nation on a more robust fiscal foundation but also promotes fairness in the tax code by requiring the super-rich to pay their share, reducing inequality, and funding services the American people depend on.” 

Senator Wyden said, “While people like nurses and firefighters pay taxes straight out of every paycheck, there’s a thicket of little-known tricks and accounting rules that allow billionaires to opt out of paying a fair share of tax on the income they enjoy. Billionaires and Republicans are going to offer up the same set of trickle-down arguments to pretend this proposal would bring about the end of western civilization. The only time you hear billionaires claim they can’t scrounge together any cash is when somebody brings up taxes, and odds are a lot of these mega-wealthy individuals are crying poverty from their yachts and private islands. This is a carefully designed proposal that draws on accounting methods already used in the tax code and raises revenue without increasing any tax rates.” 

The Billionaire Income Tax Act would: 

• Require annual taxation of non-tradable assets like stocks, regardless of sale; 
• Apply a fair, interest-like charge on deferred gains from non-tradable assets like real estate when sold; 
• Eliminate loopholes that let billionaires avoid paying taxes on wealth passed down to heirs; 
• And include robust anti-abuse rules to prevent avoidance and gamesmanship. 
• It would raise hundreds of billions of dollars to shore up programs like Social Security and Medicare—all without touching working-class Americans. 

The proposal would raise hundreds of billions of dollars to support programs like Social Security and Medicare—all without raising taxes on working-class Americans. 

The measure has been endorsed by: AFL-CIO; Alliance for Retired Americans; American Family Voices; American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE); American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME); American Federation of Teachers (AFT); American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Americans for Tax Fairness; Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO; Blue Haven Initiative; Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research; Center for Popular Democracy; Coalition on Human Needs; CommonDefense.us; Communications Workers of America (CWA); Demos; Economic Policy Institute; Friends Committee on National Legislation; Friends of the Earth U.S.; Greenpeace USA; Groundwork Action; Healthcare for America Now (HCAN); Indivisible; Institute for Policy Studies -Program on Inequality; Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP); International Brotherhood of Teamsters; International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE); Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice; Main Street Alliance; MoveOn; National Education Association (NEA); National Employment Law Project; National Women's Law Center; NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Other98; Our Revolution; Oxfam America; Patriotic Millionaires; People's Action; Progressive Change Campaign Committee; Prosperity Now; Public Citizen; Responsible Wealth; RESULTS; RootsAction.org; Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Sojourners; Strong Economy for All; Tax Justice Network USA; Tax the Ultra-Rich NOW!; UltraViolet; United Church of Christ Justice and Local Church Ministries; United for a Fair Economy; Unrig Our Economy; Voices For Progress; Working America.  

Rep. Lee has been leading the fight to get big money out of politics and to rein in the influence of billionaires so that working people, not the wealthy few, set the agenda in Washington. Earlier this year, she introduced the Abolish Super PACs Act, which would place strict limits on contributions to Super PACs, essentially shutting down a vehicle that allows unlimited outside spending in federal elections. She also helped introduce the OLIGARCH Act (“Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms Act”), designed to curb extreme wealth concentration and rein in the outsized political power of ultra-wealthy individuals. 

Most recently, Rep. Lee convened a public roundtable at Carnegie Mellon University called The Many Over the Money: Roundtable on Money in Politics, where she and advocates discussed abolishing Super PACs, overturning Citizens United, and stopping multinational corporate political spending in elections. She also introduced the Stop the Super PAC-Candidate Coordination Act to establish stronger limits and reporting requirements on coordination between candidates and outside groups like super PACs, and joined colleagues in introducing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore the ability of Congress and states to set commonsense limits on money in politics 

Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs.  Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.