What Business Is Watching in Negotiations Over Big Policy Bill

New York Times

5 days ago

Andrew here. We're focused on the scramble to salvage Republicans' major policy bill and how it could affect business and the economy. We've also got more on the New York mayoral race moves by business leaders and reporting by Danielle Kaye on the financial health of Saks Global.
A.I. is also on our minds. Check out some fun excerpts from an interview with Patrick Collison, the co-founder of Stripe, conducted by my colleagues Kevin Roose and Casey Newton of The Times's 'Hard Fork' podcast. And Sarah Kessler finds out how the C.E.O. of Twilio uses A.I.
ministration — are making it harder to salvage the legislation, which corporate America is closely watching, in time.
Here are the latest big changes:
The Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan official who is reviewing whether the legislation complies with the chamber's budget rules, rejected a provision that would limit states' ability to get more federal Medicaid funds. (For the wonkily minded, they relate to a 'provider tax' loophole that nearly all states use.) Critics of the bill say it could lead to the shuttering of many rural hospitals.
The administration directed lawmakers to remove the so-called revenge tax, which would have raised taxes for many companies based in countries that impose a global minimum tax or additional taxes on American tech giants. Business lobbyists have argued that it would chill international investment in America. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had reached international agreements exempting U.S. companies from the global minimum tax.
The Senate parliamentarian also asked lawmakers to rework a 10-year moratorium on the enforcement of state laws regulating artificial intelligence, according to Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington and the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Here's a running list of other provisions the parliamentarian has rejected. Still unaddressed: the tax changes at the core of the legislation.
Trump is turning up the heat on lawmakers. The White House held an event on Thursday to rally support for the legislation, at which the president praised the 'hundreds of things' to like about the bill.
Trump has also been calling up individual senators, according to Punchbowl News.
Whether or when that happens is unclear, however. Republican leaders are seeking to salvage many of the provisions with wording tweaks. (They've already done so with proposed cuts in federal funding for food assistance programs.) But Senator John Thune, the majority leader, has said that the chamber won't override the parliamentarian's rulings.
Meanwhile, lawmakers still disagree on key provisions like caps on deductions for state and local taxes. And it's unclear whether House Republicans will approve whatever the Senate decides on.
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