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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.

Read more here, and here.

What we’re reading this week, November 27 – December 1

Here are some of the articles we’re reading this week.

Death of the MBA – U.S. graduate business schools — once magnets for American and international students seeking a certain route to a high income — are in an existential crisis. They are losing droves of students who are balking at sky-high tuition and, in the case of international applicants, turned off by President Trump’s politics. Read more from Axios.

Who run the world? – As a college education becomes increasingly important in today’s economy, it’s girls, not boys, who are succeeding in school. For kids from poor families, that can make the difference between social mobility and a lifetime of poverty. Read more from The Atlantic.

Countdown to shutdown (maybe, probably not) – President Donald Trump raised the odds of a government shutdown next month, tweeting that his differences with Democratic leaders over immigration policy could prevent a deal on a year-end spending package. Read more from The Hill.

House GOP tax plan and grad students – Many Ph.D. students studying science, technology, engineering and math receive tuition waivers. That means their tuition is covered, and that money isn’t taxed as long as the student does research or teaches for the university. Read more on CNN.

Read between the tax bill’s lines – infrastructure! The tax code overhauls being pushed by congressional Republicans might not sound like infrastructure bills, but they contain many provisions that could have a big impact on the ability of states and localities to pay for public works improvements. The proposed plans include major changes to financing roads, ports and airports, as well as state programs related to electric vehicles and wind energy. Read more from Governing.

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.

Congress Returns to Face a Full Plate

Both chambers of Congress return to DC this week after their Thanksgiving recess last week and face a long “to-do” list.

The Senate is currently expected to bring up its version of a tax bill this week and there is still uncertainty about its fate.  President Trump and the Congressional Republicans have set out the December holiday period as their self-imposed deadline for signing into law tax reform legislation.  The House passed its version on a nearly partisan vote just before recessing for Thanksgiving, with 13 Republicans joining every Democrat in opposing the bill.

It still remains to be seen at this point whether there is enough Republican Senate support to get a bill passed.  No Democrats are currently expected to support the bill, and further complicating the process are the push to include a repeal of the Affordable Care Act individual health insurance mandate as well as the concerns of a handful of Senators about the impact of the bill on the federal debt.

Even though FY2018 started on October 1, none of the 12 individual funding bills have been signed into law and the government is currently operating under a temporary funding measure that expires at midnight, December 9.  Part of the delay in finalizing the final budget for FY2018 is due to the lack of an agreement on how much total funding is available for the year.  Negotiations are currently taking place between the senior leaders in both chambers and representatives from the Administration about the top line funding levels for the rest of this year and potentially for next year.  Another short-term temporary package to keep the government funded past the December 9 deadline will most likely be needed to buy more time for the negotiators.

At the same time, there are discussions underway, at least among Congressional Democrats, about trying to tie a legislative fix on DACA/Dreamers to the end-of-the-year funding package.  Several Democrats have been very vocal about their support for such a move.

Potentially complicating the “to-do” list further is the sexual harassment controversies that have surfaced recently in both chambers.