Earlier this afternoon, the House cleared by a vote of 227 to 203 the final version of the tax reform legislation. H. R. 1 is now headed to the Senate.
In the end, 12 Republicans joined 191 Democrats in opposing the bill.
Category: Tax & Finance
House Moves to Go to Conference This Week
Tonight, the House is expected to pass a motion to go to conference on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Senate version of the measure was passed late Friday. The Senate is expected to follow suit, and the full list of conferees is expected shortly.
Senate Approves Its Tax Bill; Conference Awaits
Early Saturday morning, the Senate approved by a vote of 51 to 49 its version of the tax overhaul bill. In the end, Bob Corker (R-TN) was the only Republican to join all Democrats in opposing the legislation.
The Senate leadership was making last-minute changes to the bill to win over a number of possible Republican holdouts, including Susan Collins (ME), Jeff Flake (Arizona), Ron Johnson (WI), and Steve Daines (MT). Democrats complained about the process that was to used to draft the original bill as well as the one that was used to make changes, including arguing that amendments were being written in by hand at the last minute.
The two chambers of Congress must now work out the differences between the two versions of the bill. The House is expected to formally call for a conference later today.
Senate Continues to Work on Tax Bill
The Senate continues to work on its version of the tax bill. With a number of Republican Senators raising concerns about a host of issues with the bill, the Republican leadership has tried to address them throughout this week. Late yesterday, the chamber was informed by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Tax that the bill would add more than $1 trillion to the national debt, even after using a scoring methodology favored by the supporters of the bill.
The legislation continues to be changed on the floor.
Read more here, here, and here.
Tax Bill Reported Out by Senate Committee
By a party line vote of 12 to 11, the Senate Budget Committee reported out earlier this afternoon a legislative package that combines a tax bill and a measure that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Although the bill was approved by the committee, whether it has enough votes to pass the full chamber at this point remains to be seen.
The full Senate is scheduled to take up the bill later this week, with a vote possible on Thursday.