House Democrats’ ambitious agenda runs through Richard Neal’s committee. The first test will be picking its members.

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Entering his 20th term next year, Neal is all but certain to chair the Ways and Means Committee, the powerful tax-writing panel that will have jurisdiction over most big-ticket items on the Democratic agenda.

WASHINGTON — High on their resounding midterm election victory, House Democrats have coalesced around an “affordability” agenda, with immediate priorities that enjoy widespread agreement among their members and longer-term goals that are already stirring debate.

And in almost every case, the legislative path to the House floor will run directly through Springfield Representative Richard Neal.

Entering his 20th term next year, Neal is all but certain to chair the Ways and Means Committee, the powerful tax-writing panel that will have jurisdiction over most big-ticket items on Democrats’ agenda. From tariffs to health care to taxing the wealthy, the committee is where progressives and moderates will have to hash out their differences and push legislation forward.

Neal, a gregarious, white-haired, 77-year-old power player, is a surprising avatar for the party at a moment when there is a clamor for a new direction.

He is old school in his politics, unbothered by taking corporate PAC money (which, he maintains, is simply necessary to fund the party’s electoral success), and relentless in his view that the unglamorous work of legislating is superior to performative social media clips.

But his allies emphasize that Neal is primarily a consensus builder who understands how to pass transformative legislation, even — and perhaps especially — when it is politically challenging.

“I understand the glitter of public life, but I like the gritty of public life,” he said. “And the Ways and Means Committee does the gritty.”

The policy battles will come next year. But a decision already looms that will set the stage for those fights: who will get to be on the committee.

“When it comes to moving a policy agenda forward, whether it’s on the health care piece, on tax policy, [or] tariff policy, it’s all going to run through Ways and Means,” said former Michigan Democratic representative Dan Kildee, who served on the committee.

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