The Post profiles House Ways and Means Staff Director Janice Mays today.

She was hired in 1975 in the aftermath of Chairman Wilbur Mills’s boozy splash with stripper Fanne Foxe, and her bosses have included former congressman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), who was convicted and imprisoned on federal corruption charges, and Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), whose ethics troubles forced him to give up the committee gavel this year.

“I happen to love those people,” Mays says of Rostenkowski and Rangel. “I think in both of these cases there’s no venal attempt to do bad things, to take money away from taxpayers.”

. . .

Tax lobbyists, of course, know that Mays can answer their prayers from her perch as staff director and chief counsel, quietly steering the course of the House Democrats’ tax policy.

. . .

Mays says she has no plans to retire and — although she won’t rule it out — doesn’t plan on becoming a lobbyist.