The Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday elected Amway chief, Steve Van Andel, as the chairman of its board of directors.

In that role, Van Andel said he wanted to advance trading worldwide and get businesses involved, calling it his “top priority.”

“It doesn’t matter the size of the business—small, medium, or large,” he said in a statement. “Promoting trade in any part of the world will continue to be a top priority of mine.”

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A pair of senior GOP tax-writers is reintroducing legislation to repeal the estate tax.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) announced Wednesday that they were bringing back legislation almost identical to what they released in the last Congress to permanently get rid of the tax.

Thune, a member of Senate GOP leadership as well as the Finance Committee, cited a study from the conservative economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin that said that repealing the estate tax – or “death tax,” as Republicans have labeled it – would create some 1.5 million new jobs.

“This tax punishes farmers and entrepreneurs for a lifetime of hard work,” Thune said in a statement. “Death should not be a taxable event, and I will continue to work in Congress to see a permanent end to this unfair tax.”

Two House chairmen applauded the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service for shuttering three post offices in the Capitol complex.

Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Administration Chairwoman Candice Miller called the savings from the consolidations “a small but symbolically important step in restoring USPS to long-term financial solvency.”

“Congress should lead by example and not treat itself to a higher level of service than it needs or is available to the average American,” Issa and Miller said in a statement. Read more...

The IRS says it is legally required to dole out $70 million in bonuses. 

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) on Tuesday added a senior Sears and Kmart executive to its board of directors.

Ron Boire, the president of the two retail giants, takes the spot of Sears’s recently departed president and chief executive, Lou D’Ambrosio.

RILA President Sandy Kennedy says Boire’s “insights” about the industry will bring “added wisdom” to the group, which boasts membership of nine of the top 10 U.S. retailers.

Ben Bernanke faces some big challenges in perhaps his final months at Fed. Read more...

The Internal Revenue Service failed to give the House Small Business Committee requested documents on how the agency treats smaller companies by the requested date of June 17, the committee said Tuesday.

Danny Werfel, the acting head of the IRS, told Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), the chairman of the Small Business panel, that the agency would try to get the documents to the committee within another 15 days.

Graves had asked the IRS last month what percentage of small businesses received audits from the agency, and for information on why the IRS might come to notice small businesses.

The estimate hands supporters a new economic argument for the bill as the upper chamber marches toward a final vote. 

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa had warned Democrats that releasing a full transcript would be “reckless.”