GOP chairman expects to finish tax bill markup by Thursday

The House Ways and Means Committee should vote on the GOP’s tax-reform bill by Thursday, according to panel Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

“It’s going to look like it’s long,” Brady said of the markup at an event hosted by Politico.

The Ways and Means Committee’s markup of the legislation will begin on Monday at noon. 

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Richard Neal (Mass.), has pushed for the committee’s work to only take place during daytime hours.

Brady said he wants “to do as much of this deliberation during the normal working hours” as possible, although at some point it might go into the evening.

He also said he wants to structure the markup so that Democrats and Republicans both have the opportunity make the case for their amendments.

“Four days of open, full-throated debate, with all these amendments in the tax code, I think will let the American people see something they haven’t seen in a long time, which is real debate on a real tax-reform plan,” he said.

Brady said that work will take place to amend the bill in the Ways and Means committee, before the measure is brought to the House floor, and in a conference committee with the Senate. However, he does not expect that amendments to the bill will be allowed when it’s considered on the House floor.

“There is nothing like changing the biggest economy on the planet, changing the tax code in front of the world, to see really bad things happen,” he said.