House panel unveils tax portion of Trump agenda bill
The House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, on Friday evening released partial text for its portion of President Trump’s “big beautiful bill” and scheduled a meeting to debate and advance the legislation for Tuesday at 2 p.m.
The proposal had been highly anticipated, but the text released Friday appears to leave out some of the most contentious issues that have divided Republicans and threatened to sink the bill.
Not in the bill are provisions on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, which is perhaps the most controversial of the tax laws under consideration. The SALT cap is a popular deduction in many higher-tax blue states, and has emerged as one of the biggest sticking points in negotiations.
A block of suburban blue-state Republicans has threatened to spike the entire reconciliation package if they don’t get the raise they want.
A more in-depth version of the bill is expected before the Tuesday meeting.
“It’s not unusual for a revised version to be introduced as an amendment in the nature of a substitute,” a committee spokesperson said.
Also missing are many, if not all, of the individual tax breaks proposed by Trump while on the campaign trail. These include getting rid of taxes on tips and overtime, canceling taxes on Social Security, adding a tax break for auto loan interest payments, and starting a credit for family caregivers.
The bill does not appear to raise the individual income tax rate for top earners but makes permanent Trump's 2017 tax cuts.
The bill increases the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,500 through 2028 and to $2,000 in subsequent years, and requires Social Security numbers for claiming it.
The bill increases the pass-through deduction for qualified business income to 22 percent from 20 percent, which was a top priority for many business and business lobbies. It also boosts the estate and gift tax exemption to $15,000,000 and indexes it for inflation.
The bill also has a section on “limiting Medicare coverage for certain individuals” and sets out a list of requirements for accessing federal health benefits.
Ways and Means Committee chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said in a Friday statement that his committee has “spent two years preparing for this moment.”
“Pro-family, pro-worker tax provisions are the heart of President Trump’s economic agenda,” he said.
Top Ways and Means Democrat Richard Neal (Mass.) blasted Republicans for the after-hours release of the legislative text.
"Releasing this bill under the cover of darkness, omitting major provisions, the only marker that this is Republican marquee legislation are the tax cuts for billionaires,” he said.
Updated at 10:36 p.m.