Tax Bill’s Next Step: Become Law

After a few twists and turns, the Republican tax bill is on its way to President Trump for his signature.

December 21, 2017

By Jon Taets

WASHINGTON – After weeks of back and forth between the two chambers, and endless hours spent trying to make the math come out right under Congressional rule—and even after having to make last second changes late at night to comply with Senate rules—Congress has finally passed major tax reform legislation.

Both chambers passed their respective bills last week, and the Conference Committee released the expected final version last Friday. After a handful of Senate Republicans who were thought of as possible no votes announced their support over the weekend and into Monday, it seemed that the bill was set for smooth sailing over Democrat objections this week.

That seemed to bare out in the House when the vote was cast Tuesday afternoon largely along party lines: 12 Republicans, primarily from high tax states, voted no; and 0 Democrats voted in favor. Then, because it seems that Congress can’t be free of any drama these days, it was discovered that some smaller provisions primarily impacted the tax treatment of certain college endowments. Even the title of the bill was in violation of Senate a procedural rule, the Byrd Rule, requiring all provisions in this type of package to have a budgetary impact. Therefore, senators had to amend the bill to remove the offending provisions before voting on the package after midnight Wednesday morning. That vote fell strictly along partisan lines, 51-48. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) missed the vote after returning home to Arizona earlier in the week to continue treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer. This required the House to cast a re-vote Wednesday morning to finally send the package to President Trump to become law.

As the last-second amendments did not impact any of the provisions that most affect our industry, Monday’s NACS Daily article is still a good primer on those parts of the bill.

Passage of the tax bill moves Congress onto the next major legislative deadline, which is funding the federal government beyond Friday night. There remains some negotiations and gamesmanship to take place there over the next couple of days. Republican leaders in the House have already abandoned plans to pass a bill that would fund the Defense Department for a full year, but the rest of the government just until January 19. It appears that they will pass a bill to fund the government until January 19 today, and then leave town for the holidays. Passage is not entirely assured in the Senate, where they will need 60 votes, and thus help from the Democrats, to avoid a government shutdown. While a shutdown remains unlikely, we never know in this political environment.

It has been an interesting week so far in Washington, and today and tomorrow may continue the drama.

Jon Taets is the NACS director of government relations; he can be reached at jtaets@convenience.org.

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