House GOP leaders say ‘tax cuts 2.0’ vote will happen this month

House GOP leaders insisted Wednesday that they plan to hold a floor vote this month on a second round of tax cuts, dismissing reports that they may drop such an effort.

“Correct,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters when asked if there would be a floor vote in September.

“On the floor,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) added.

House Republicans have been working on a package of legislation to build on the tax-cut law that they passed last December.

{mosads}The central component of the new legislative package would be to permanently extend the tax changes for individuals from the 2017 law. Those provisions were made temporary in order to comply with budget rules that allowed the law to pass the Senate with a simple-majority vote.

But some GOP lawmakers are concerned about permanently extending the 2017 law’s $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. Most House Republicans who voted against the law did so because of the cap, and some of those lawmakers are vulnerable in the November midterm elections.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing three GOP aides, that House Republicans were pressing pause on the “tax cuts 2.0” efforts in order to examine the political benefits and risks of holding a vote.

But top House Republicans said this week that they are moving forward with the effort to pursue a permanent extension of the tax changes, including the SALT deduction cap.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday that he plans to release legislative text and hold a committee markup next week.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Wednesday that he and Brady will be hosting a member briefing on the tax-cut efforts on Thursday to start putting together legislation.

Scalise said that the country is “seeing this great economic growth” and lawmakers want to “build on that success.”