WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday that his panel will move to overhaul the U.S. tax code next year.

The panel "will write, act on and pass comprehensive tax reform legislation in 2013," said Republican Representative Dave Camp in the text of a speech to be delivered in the evening.

"Let me repeat that: we intend to move a comprehensive tax reform bill in 2013 - no matter what," he said.

The U.S. tax code has not been thoroughly overhauled since 1986, but bipartisan political support for such a move has been growing as part of a response to the nation's budget deficit.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh and Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Howard Goller and Eric Walsh)