On Friday, Representative Mark Sanford signed on as a cosponsor of H.R. 1938, the President-Elect Release of Tax Return Act, introduced by Representative Tom Garrett (R-VA), to require future Presidents-elect to release personal tax returns.

He released the following statement:  

“The United States has a longstanding precedent in which our presidential candidates release their tax returns, and I think that’s an important tradition that should not be broken. It encourages transparency in the upcoming administration and helps to ensure that same transparency among down-ballot candidates.

“This bill would require simply an offshoot of that tradition, requiring only the President-elect to release personal tax returns instead of all candidates running for the office. I feel that mandating this information from the President-elect will encourage candidates to provide the information beforehand.” 

If you would like to read Representative Sanford’s August 2016 New York Times op-ed, please click here.

Rep. Sanford is also a cosponsor of H.R. 5386, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, a bipartisan bill which requires major party candidates running for president to release their previous three years of federal tax returns.