Tax conference announces open meeting next week

The House–Senate conference committee on tax legislation will hold an open meeting on Wednesday afternoon, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) announced Friday.

“Our open meeting will be an opportunity for the conferees to discuss our best, most pro-growth tax reform ideas that will help improve the lives of all Americans,” Brady said in a statement.

The committee is tasked with reconciling the differences between the House- and Senate-passed tax bills and producing a final package that President Trump can sign. Republicans are hoping to get the final legislation on his desk by the end of the year.

While the bills both cut taxes for individuals and corporations, the measures have a number of differences, including on individual tax rates, the alternative minimum tax, the estate tax and provisions relating to pass-through businesses.

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Democrats also have representatives on the conference committee, but they are not expected to sign on to the committee’s report.

The Senate Democrats on the committee said in a letter Friday that they want the panel to hold at least three open meetings and for all members of the conference to be able to get roll-call votes on amendments. They also asked for the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation to produce a “complete analysis” before the conference report is finalized.

“We know that many of us disagree about the merits of policies that would lead to tax increases on the middle class, tax breaks for large corporations and the very wealthy, and the destruction of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” the Democratic senators wrote. “But we should all agree that changes of this scale should be done the right way, with a full opportunity for open, public dialogue, and complete information from non-partisan analysts about the bill’s effects.”