Latest news with #ByrdBath
The Hill
3 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Senate GOP declines to meet with parliamentarian on whether Trump tax cuts add to deficit
Senate Democrats have tried multiple times to have a meeting with their GOP counterparts and the Senate parliamentarian to decide the crucial procedural question of whether extending President Trump's expiring 2017 tax cuts adds to future federal deficits. And Republicans so far have 'flat out refused' to have any such discussion, they say. The partisan battle over how to 'score' the budgetary impact of making Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent could determine whether Senate Republicans would need to rewrite the sprawling 940-page bill on the Senate floor. Democrats must decide whether to force Republicans to obtain a parliamentarian ruling on the Senate floor Monday on whether making the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent would violate Senate rules. An adverse ruling on the issue could derail the bill, but Republicans are confident that won't happen. Democrats say Republicans are trying to dodge the Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough from ruling on whether the tax portion of the 'big, beautiful bill' exceeds the reconciliation package's deficit target for 2025 to 2034 and whether it increase deficits beyond 2034. Democrats think that if MacDonough weighs in on the subject, she would rule that Senate precedent requires that changes in tax law be scored on a 'current law' baseline. Such a ruling that would show that extending the Trump tax cuts permanently violates the Senate's Byrd Rule. A person close to the conversation said that Senate Budget Committee Republicans 'flat out refused' to meet with the parliamentarian to talk about what baseline should be used for Trump's big, beautiful bill. Democrats 'asked that this be adjudicated by the parliamentarian' and Republicans 'have refused, basically saying they can do what they want,' said the source familiar with the behind-the-scenes debate. Democrats brought up the issue at the start of the Byrd Bath process for the bill. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) again tried to meet with Republicans this past week to discuss the budget baseline with the parliamentarian and Republicans once again declined to participate, according to the source. The Byrd Rule determines what legislation is eligible to pass the Senate with a simple-majority vote and avoid a filibuster. It states that legislation passed on the reconciliation fast track must comply with the reconciliation instructions, and it requires the legislation not increase the deficit in fiscal years beyond the budget window. Merkley on Sunday circulated a letter he received from Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel stating that the Finance portion of the GOP megabill would increase the deficit by nearly $3.5 trillion over the 2025-2034 window, exceeding the target set by the reconciliation instructions. Swagel also told Merkley that the Finance text would 'increase deficits in years after 2034.' That would appear to violate the Byrd Rule and subject the entire bill to a 60-vote point-of-order objection. Republicans, however, say that the parliamentarian doesn't have a role in judging how much the tax portion of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act would add to the deficit within the bill's 10-year budget window or whether it would add to deficits beyond 2034. They argue that Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has authority under Section 312 of the Congressional Budget Act 'to determine baseline numbers of spending and revenue.' Ryan Wrasse, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pointed to a Budget Committee report published when Democrats were in the majority in 2022 stating that the Budget Committee, through its Chair, makes the call on questions of numbers,' not the parliamentarian. Graham received a letter from Swagel, the CBO director, on Saturday stating that the Finance Committee's tax text does not exceed its reconciliation instructions or add to deficits after 2034 when scored on the 'current-policy' baseline that Graham wants the Joint Committee on Taxation and CBO to use. Taylor Reidy, a spokesperson for the Budget panel, asserted on X, the social media platform, that 'there is no need to have a parliamentarian meeting with respect to current policy baseline because Section 312 of the Congressional Budget Act gives Sen. Graham — as Chairman of the Budget Committee — the authority to set the baseline. Senate Democrats, however, argue that a current policy baseline has never been used for a budget reconciliation package before and that directing JCT and CBO how to score a bill violates the spirit of the Byrd Rule and Section 313 of the 1974 Budget Act, which determines what can get into a reconciliation package. Democrats note that conservative Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a fiscal hawk, compared the 'current-policy' baseline to 'fairy dust' if it's used to argue that extending tax cuts don't add to the deficit.
Politico
23-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
All eyes on the parliamentarian
Presented by The American Council of Life Insurers TIME FOR MORE FUN: Welcome to merely the latest of the crucial weeks for the GOP megabill. Republican leaders in the Senate hope to release the full text of the fiscal package as soon as today, with the ultimate goal to move the measure to the floor perhaps by Wednesday or Thursday. That means there is a lot that still needs to be accomplished over the next couple days. Bipartisan meetings with the Senate parliamentarian over the Finance Committee's proposals — basically the meat of the megabill — kick off today. The parliamentarian's overall work of advising whether provisions are allowed under the Senate's strict budget rules could be finished as soon as Tuesday. (That might make it more likely that floor consideration of the package is pushed back until Thursday.) On the parliamentarian: Democrats have gotten some key parts of the megabill tossed, particularly from the Agriculture Committee's jurisdiction. Still, it's not clear how much success Democrats will have on the tax front. This will be the first time the parliamentarian considers Finance Committee proposals under a current policy baseline, which could add some further curveballs to what's known as the Byrd Bath process. But it's worth remembering: The parliamentarian cleared the vast majority of provisions from the original Trump tax cuts, which was passed back in 2017. In fact, perhaps the most famous portion of the bill that got struck was its name, though lots of people still refer to it as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. (A more substantive provision that would have given churches and nonprofits increased leeway to dabble in politics was also tossed out.) MORE ON EVERYTHING in a bit. An exciting time for people of a certain age: Today marks 34 years since the North American release of a little game called 'Sonic the Hedgehog' on the Sega Genesis platform. Get us those scoops at supersonic speed. Email: bbecker@ bfaler@ and teckert@ You can also reach us on X at @berniebecker3, @tobyeckert, @brian_faler, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Tax. Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. LOOK AT ALL THOSE NUMBERS: The analysts at JCT really pushed to get out their latest projections on the Senate tax bill, given that they released them in the dead of night on Saturday. The current policy baseline — which finds that it costs nothing to extend the expiring parts of the Trump tax cuts — threw some curveballs here too, as our Benjamin Guggenheim noted. JCT found that the Senate GOP tax bill would cost around $441 billion under that approach. But that doesn't tell the whole story, as a number of outside budget analysts were quick to point out. Senate Republicans' tax bill would almost certainly cost north of $4 trillion under the current law baseline that the House used and that has been traditional in congressional budget measures. (We'll know more soon enough: JCT is expected to release a score of the Senate tax bill based on the current law baseline in the coming days.) The different baselines make it harder to do a direct comparison between the House and Senate tax bills. But there are still plenty of numbers that stuck out in JCT's latest findings: — Remember all that talk from Senate Republicans about removing or paring back President Donald Trump's preferred tax policies from the megabill? In the end, the Senate didn't squeeze out too much in extra savings there compared to the House. GOP senators proposed north of $240 billion in tax cuts over a decade based on Trump's campaign proposals, compared to just under $290 billion in the House. Long story short: The Senate rolled back the cost of eliminating tax on overtime pay and for auto loan interest quite a bit, and also reduced the scope of 'no tax on tips.' But GOP senators also expanded the proposed deduction for seniors. —A big reason Senate Republicans thought about clipping Trump's campaign proposals was to help make a trio of key business incentive permanent, after the House restored those preferences only through 2029. They were able to do so anyway, but at a cost of around $420 billion over a decade, according to JCT. Arguably, the real cost is even more, because part of the proposal to allow full expensing for capital investments is covered under the current policy baseline. The House's temporary proposals for those three incentives — the other two are immediate deductions for research costs and a more generous write-off for the interest on companies' debt — cost less than a $100 billion over 10 years. —Senate Republicans significantly reduced the size of several of the House GOP's preferred revenue-raisers. The so-called 'revenge tax' would cost $52 billion under the Senate plan, well under half the $116 billion that would be raised by the House proposal. And GOP senators basically defanged the House's proposed tax increases on college endowments and overseas remittances, which raise around $4 billion and $1 billion, respectively, under their plan. The House's remittance proposal, for instance, generated around $26 billion in revenue. CONFIRMING THEIR PRIORS: Senate Republicans also pulled back on the House GOP's proposed expansion of the special deduction for pass-through income from 20 percent to 23 percent. Even so, GOP senators want to permanently extend the deduction, which they first put into place in TCJA — underscoring the policy's broad popularity among Republicans. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently asked JCT for further data on that incentive last week, as Democrats continue to argue that, among other things, far too many of the benefits from the deduction flow to the rich. Among the joint tax committee's findings: That a large and growing share of the proceeds from the deduction are going to the well off. Around 55 percent of the benefits for the pass-through write-off in 2022 went to taxpayers with an adjusted gross income north of $1 million — compared to 46 percent in 2018, the provision's first year in effect. Those making more than $10 million a year got a full one-fifth of the tax cut from the deduction in 2022, with those earning north of $50 million got 8 percent. That compares to 13 percent and 4 percent, respectively, in 2018. And to be clear: That's a growing share of a growing tax break. JCT noted that just under 19 million taxpayers claimed the deduction in 2018, leading to reduced tax liabilities of almost $43 billion. Seven million more taxpayers claimed the deduction four years later, at a cost of an extra $20 billion. The broader view: A range of analyses have found that the GOP megabill is regressive, with the wealthiest gaining far more than those at the bottom end of the income scale. The Yale Budget Lab recently released more on that front, with a side-by-side analysis of the House and Senate tax packages. The group noted that central parts of the tax bill make it more regressive, like the extension of the temporary TCJA provisions. Low-income taxpayers also don't benefit much from Trump's campaign proposals or the GOP expansion of the Child Tax Credit. But how Republicans decide to handle deductions for state and local taxes will influence distributional aspects as well. The $10,000 placeholder currently in the Senate bill is far more progressive than the $40,000 cap that passed the House. 'What the distribution ultimately looks like is going to meaningfully be determined by where lawmakers land on questions like the SALT cap, which is one of the large outstanding areas of difference between the chambers,' said Natasha Sarin of the Budget Lab. Ginning up the opposition: A pair of progressive organizations, Fair Share America and Unrig Our Economy, kicked off a bus tour this weekend as they try to put more of a spotlight on the megabill. Polls continue to show voters generally aren't on board with the GOP fiscal package, though some individual parts of it are popular. The progressive bus tour kicked off in the Northeast over the weekend and will travel around 4,000 miles through 14 states before coming to a close in mid-July. The White House and GOP lawmakers have gotten the megabill to within shouting distance of Trump's desk, despite a very narrow majority in the House and key differences between centrists and conservatives about the package. Still, groups on the left believe their work on the bill can have an impact. 'We've seen firsthand that once people learn what is in this harmful tax and budget bill, they strongly oppose it,' said Kristen Crowell of Fair Share America. 'When they turn out and demonstrate their opposition, or call or write their member of Congress, that makes a difference.' Around the World Financial Times: 'Inheritance tax referendum spooks Swiss super-rich.' Reuters: 'Italy delays again contested tax on sweetened drinks to 2026.' Cruise Industry News: 'Greece to Introduce Tax for Cruise Guests Starting in July.' AROUND THE NATION 'Why the sin tax has failed to keep up with Cleveland's stadium and arena 'needs.'' Salem Statesman Journal: 'Bill to increase Oregon's hotel tax to pay for wildlife programs passes House.' Springfield News-Leader: 'A special session bill offers property tax relief for some Missouri counties — but not all.' Also Worth Your Time Wall Street Journal: 'The Tax Bill Would Deliver a Big Win for Private Schools—and Investors.' Washington Post: 'Trump and GOP's tax bill would sell off USPS's brand-new EVs.' Bloomberg Tax: 'EU Businesses Call for Quick Solutions to US 'Revenge Tax.'' Did you know? The 'Sonic the Hedgehog' movie was the sixth-highest grossing film of 2020.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What to know as the Senate tries to pass Trump's agenda bill next week
It's go time in the Senate for President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' After months of negotiations, Senate Republicans are gearing up for a potential vote next week on Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. It will be a major test for Republican Leader John Thune and Trump's own hold on the upper chamber that aides say will be cast as a binary choice for the rank-and-file: you either are with the president or you aren't. Thune has predicted the Senate could begin consideration on the bill as early as the middle of next week. That would mean a massive sprint starting this weekend to draft final text, whip votes and iron out a series of major sticking points that will satisfy holdouts – without pushing the bill in such a different direction that it stalls out in the House of Representatives where it passed by a single vote. The bottom line is next week is crunch time and all the hard decisions that have been punted will need to be made in the next several days. Aides and members say that if everything goes according to plan (and that's far from certain), the 20-hour clock to debate the bill could start as soon as Wednesday. Republicans would yield a big part of their time back and vote-a-rama – an hours-long voting marathon – could begin Thursday evening into Friday. That could always get pushed into Friday evening, but right now the goal is to have this finished by the end of next week. Over the next several days, a myriad of technical work and hard-fought negotiations have to unfold in order to get the bill to a place where it is even ready for the floor. Some of these negotiations will be substantial, others will be a way to give members an off-ramp to vote 'yes' because members really do want to back the president here. One of those tasks is already underway and will continue this weekend: the Byrd Bath. Simply put, the Byrd bath is a critical process led by the Senate parliamentarian that ensures all the provisions of the bill comply with special Senate rules that allow Republicans to move this bill with a simple majority rather than being subject to the normal 60-vote threshold. Those rules are specific and nuanced, but the Budget Control Act set parameters that required provisions within a bill that is going to pass with a simple majority to have more than just an 'incidental' budget impact. The parliamentarian traditionally makes a call on whether a provision qualifies. It's named after the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who came up with the rule to stop either side from abusing the reconciliation process and trying to use it to just pass legislation that bypassed a filibuster. The way it works is Democrats and Republican staffers of each committee with jurisdiction in the bill privately meet with the parliamentarian and make their arguments for whether provisions meet the confines of the process. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to undertake this process Sunday evening, a critical step in moving forward because so many of the tax and health care provisions that are the heart of this bill are in Finance's purview. Several other committees have already begun, including the Senate Banking Committee, which Democrats say led to some of the provisions in that committee's jurisdiction from being ruled out of compliance with reconciliation. 'The Parliamentarian agreed that the funding cap for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), elimination of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), gutting of the Office of Financial Research and Financial Stability Oversight Council, and slashing Federal Reserve staff salaries violate the Senate's Byrd Rule,' Sen. Elizabeth Warren's office announced in a statement. State and local tax deductions: This may be the biggest hurdle right now. Unlike in the House, where a number of swing district members hail from high-tax states, there is absolutely no interest in the Senate in investing hundreds of billions of dollars to raise the cap on how much constituents in New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois can deduct in state and local taxes on their federal taxes. The Senate bill currently keeps the cap frozen at $10,000, a placeholder that Senate leaders have indicated they may be willing to negotiate on. But the coalition of House Republicans who raised the cap to $40,000 for certain income thresholds under $500,000 aren't interested in renegotiating the hard-fought deal they cemented in the House. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma and former House member, has been leading the talks over the issue, but so far there is no deal. There is some discussion, two sources say, over dialing back the income threshold for who qualifies for the $40,000 deduction but so far that's been a nonstarter for the group of House Republicans who got this concession in the House bill a few weeks ago. To say there is palpable frustration in the Senate with a handful of House members dictating the future of a provision in the Senate bill that no one in that chamber cares much about is putting it mildly. Medicaid: A number of Senate Republicans have made clear they could vote against the Senate bill if there aren't protections to ensure rural hospitals are protected from some of the changes to Medicaid in the bill, like the slash to how much hospitals can be held harmless when it comes to the provider tax. Led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a group of these Republicans are pushing leadership to create a kind of stabilization fund that states could use. Aides close to the process say that it could go a long way to win over some skeptical Republicans, including people like Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia and Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. The particulars of how the fund would be structured and how much it would cost are still being considered and it's important to note that the fund helps hospital but wouldn't do much for others who could lose coverage because of other changes to Medicaid, including new work requirements. Green energy tax credits: While the Senate bill takes a slower approach to phasing out some of the clean energy tax credits that were a key part of the Biden administration's environmental legacy, there are still some Republicans who have warned that some of the phaseouts may happen too quickly. Other conservatives have warned that they need to be eradicated more expeditiously, setting up a massive clash and one that could rear its head again if the Senate passes a bill that ultimately doesn't go as far as the House did. A last-minute negotiation is ultimately what got House conservatives to vote for the bill so any changes to the timeline could be an issue when the bill goes back to the House. Once the Senate passes its version of Trump's bill, it will go over to the House. There, Speaker Mike Johnson and his GOP conference will have to decide whether to back the new bill – or begin the drawn-out process of trying to negotiate. Do they swallow the Senate's big changes and allow the bill to move quickly to Trump's desk for a huge policy win? Or do they fight for their own version and begin the rigorous, and time-consuming, process of a conference committee, where both chambers will formally iron out their differences? Johnson and Trump are both hoping to avoid the latter option – but will the fractious House GOP conference agree?
Fox News
20-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Several provisions fail to pass muster with Senate rules in 'big, beautiful bill'
Several provisions in the Senate GOP's version of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" have run afoul of Senate rules and must be stripped if Republicans want to pass the package without the help of Democrats. The bill is undergoing what's called a "Byrd Bath," when the parliamentarian meticulously combs through each section of the mammoth bill to determine whether policies comport with the Senate's Byrd Rule. The point of the budget reconciliation process is to skirt the Senate filibuster and pass a massive, partisan legislative package. But if provisions are left in that fail the test, Senate Republicans will have to meet the typical 60-vote threshold. Provisions that don't pass muster can still be appealed, however. Senate Democrats vowed to use the Byrd Bath as a cudgel against the Senate GOP to inflict as much pain as possible and slow momentum as Republicans rush to put the colossal bill on Trump's desk by July 4. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could also overrule the parliamentarian but has remained adamant he would not attempt such a move. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough scrutinized three chunks of the megabill from the Senate Banking, Environment and Public Works and Armed Services committees and found numerous policies that failed to meet the Byrd Rule's requirements. Among those was a provision that would have eliminated funding for a target of the GOP's since its inception in 2008, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would have effectively eliminated the agency. Doing so also would have slashed $6.4 billion in spending. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in a statement he would "remain committed to cutting wasteful spending at the CFPB and will continue working with the Senate parliamentarian on the Committee's provisions." Attempts to put guardrails on the $150 billion in Defense Department funding baked into the package also failed to pass muster. The language would have required that Pentagon officials outline how the money would be spent by a certain deadline or see the funding reduced. Other provisions on the chopping block include language that cut $300 million from the Financial Research Fund and cut jobs and move the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board under the umbrella of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would have saved roughly $773 million. An attempt to change the pay schedule for Federal Reserve employees was also nixed, which would have saved about $1.4 billion. Environmental standards and regulations set by the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act were also determined to have run afoul of the Byrd Rule, including a repeal of tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles with a model year of 2027 and later.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House advances Trump's $9.4B spending cuts package targeting NPR, PBS, USAID to House-wide vote
President Donald Trump's $9.4 billion spending cuts package survived a key hurdle on Wednesday afternoon, setting the measure up for a final House-wide vote later this week. Trump's proposal, which was introduced as legislation by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., would cut $8.3 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and just over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes federal funding to NPR and PBS. The House of Representatives made a procedural motion known as a "rule vote," which passed mostly along party lines. Mike Johnson, Donald Trump Get 'Big, Beautiful' Win As Budget Passes House The rule passing now allows for debate on the $9.4 billion spending cut measure, followed by a final House-wide vote. Read On The Fox News App But it's not atypical for House leaders to include unrelated measures in rule votes, as is the case with the spending cuts package – House GOP leaders included a provision with minor changes to Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" to account for the Senate needing to amend the bill. That latter piece of legislation, a vast tax and immigration bill, is moving through the budget reconciliation process. By dropping the Senate's threshold for advancement from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party in power to skirt the minority – in this case, Democrats – on vast pieces of legislation, provided they adhere to a specific set of budgetary rules. House GOP leaders said they needed to make the recent changes to the bill to better adhere to the Senate's "Byrd Bath," when the Senate parliamentarian reviews the bill and removes anything not adhering to reconciliation guidelines. Whereas that deals with the government's mandatory spending processes that are more difficult to amend, the $9.4 billion spending cuts package tackles discretionary spending that Congress controls every year. It's called a "rescissions package," which is a formal proposal by the White House to claw back federal funds already allocated for the current fiscal year. Like reconciliation, the mechanism allows for a 51-vote majority in the Senate rather than 60. Congress has 45 days to consider it, or it is deemed rejected. Republican leaders have held up this rescissions package as the first step to codifying the billions of dollars of government waste identified by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump allies have also made clear they view this first package as a test of what kind of cuts congressional Republicans can stomach. Mccaul Touts Money In Trump Tax Bill To Pay Texas Back For Fighting Biden Border Policies And while the rule vote was expected to pass, the bill could have trouble ahead of its expected Thursday afternoon vote. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., pointed out in a bipartisan statement that the media funding represents less than 0.01% of the federal budget and said taking that money away would "dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans." Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told reporters on Tuesday that he got assurances that USAID cuts would exclude critical medical funding. "I feel better than what I was hearing last week, that was gonna be a total cut," he said, without revealing whether he would support the article source: House advances Trump's $9.4B spending cuts package targeting NPR, PBS, USAID to House-wide vote
