Live coverage as Ways and Means marks up the GOP tax bill: The Hill is providing live coverage of the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday as it begins its consideration of GOP legislation to rewrite the tax code.
The Republicans’ bill would reduce the number of individual tax rates, slash the corporate tax rate and eliminate many tax breaks.
The markup is expected to continue for several days. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said he expects it to be finished by Thursday.
Democrats, who have largely opposed the tax bill, are expected to offer dozens of amendments during the markup. Here’s where you can catch all the action: http://bit.ly/2Ao50pu.
The background: House Republicans released their sweeping bill to rewrite the tax code on Thursday, the first step toward fulfilling a key agenda item. The 429-page bill makes dozens of changes to tax rates and deductions for both individuals and corporations, and earned wide praise from Republicans.
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Many GOP lawmakers and the White House backed the bill soon after its release. But several Republicans from highly populated states expressed concerns about the removal of a deduction for high state and local taxes.
Most conservative nonprofits, right-leaning think tanks and business groups praised the GOP plan, but the National Federation of Independent Businesses and several homebuilding groups opposed the bill. Home industry groups oppose changes that undercut the mortgage interest deduction. Here’s everything to keep an eye on: http://bit.ly/2AmOIgC.
Recent updates: Brady releases revised tax language… Chairman Brady released a revised version of his tax overhaul proposal in the 6th hour of the first day of debate Monday, eliciting howls from Democrats who called the process a disgrace.
Brady said the new language makes “improvements” related to a variety of issues, such as the exclusion from income for employer-provided dependent care, protects the integrity of the Earned Income Tax Credit and focuses the excise tax on net investment income of education institutions with endowments assets of at least $250,000 per student.
Brady says health-care taxes won’t be in overhaul… The newly introduced amendment doesn’t address any health-care taxes — such as the medical device and health insurance tax — which committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said won’t be included in the tax-reform effort, as members will work to repeal or delay them after tax reform wraps up.
More here… http://bit.ly/2Ao50pu
Flashback to Sunday… Ryan says ObamaCare mandate repeal up for consideration in tax bill: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Sunday that repealing ObamaCare’s individual mandate is being discussed in talks surrounding the Republican tax-reform plan.
“We have an active conversation with our members and a whole host of ideas on things to add to this bill. And that’s one of the things that’s being discussed,” Ryan told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We’re listening to our members about what we can do to add to this bill to make it even better. So that’s among the ideas that a lot of members are suggesting that we could add to this bill to make it even better,” he continued: http://bit.ly/2AoLIAf.
Tax Policy Center revises estimates on tax bill: The Tax Policy Center said it is revising its earlier analysis of the House Republican tax proposal, blaming an error in calculating the child tax credit.
The group had earlier said the Republican tax plan would on average reduce taxes for all income groups next year, but within 10 years raise taxes on about 30 percent of taxpayers.
The nonpartisan research group, which has been blasted as biased by Republicans but is generally well respected, released its report as the House Ways and Means Committee began marking up the bill.
The group said it would soon be issuing a new report as soon as possible.
House reaches deal on flood insurance overhaul: The House is expected to vote within days on a bill renewing the federal flood insurance program after Republican leaders struck a deal over planned rate increases.
The House Rules Committee held a hearing late Monday afternoon on an updated bill to extend and overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The Rules panel is the last stop for legislation before the House floor, meaning the new NFIP renewal bill could get a vote within days.
Lawmakers have been negotiating over fixes to the NFIP for several months, with the program facing a December deadline for its renewal. Republicans have sought to downsize the federal program, which has ballooning debt, in hopes of fostering a private market for flood insurance. I’ll explain here: http://bit.ly/2AoMi1a.
Happy Monday and welcome back to Overnight Finance. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-release.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.
On tap tomorrow
- House Natural Resources Committee: Hearing entitled “Examining Challenges in Puerto Rico’s Recovery and the Role of the Financial Oversight and Management Board,” 10 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “Sustainable Housing Finance, Part III,” 10 a.m.
- Senate Banking Committee: Hearing on new North Korea sanctions bill, 10 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “Examining Federal Reserve Reform Proposals,” 2 p.m.
Prepare yourself for the week ahead with a preview of what’s coming up.
Tax reform sprint leaves little time for funding fight: Republicans have only five weeks to reach a spending deal with Democrats, but an aggressive focus on tax reform during that period is putting the effort in doubt.
Congressional Republicans want to pass a tax bill by Thanksgiving, and President Trump wants to sign it by Christmas. Right in the middle of that stretch lies the Dec. 8 deadline to pass legislation funding the government.
If Republicans and Democrats can’t agree to a new spending plan, or at least a stopgap measure that Democrats say they don’t want, the government will shut down.
“I want to get this all wrapped up by Christmas. It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re not done with everything on the 9th,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a key member of the House Appropriations Committee: http://bit.ly/2AoxXSb.
Ryan feels ‘very good’ about passing tax bill by Thanksgiving: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a Sunday television interview expressed confidence that House Republicans will pass their tax-reform legislation by Thanksgiving.
“I feel very good about it. I think our members are very excited about this. We’re pleased with what we’ve rolled out, and this is what we said we would do when we ran for office in 2016,” Ryan told “Fox News Sunday” when asked about the deadline.
The bill, unveiled last week, is expected to pass the House, but may face an uphill battle in the Senate, which repeatedly failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare earlier this year despite legislation passing in the lower chamber: http://bit.ly/2AnZX8L.
Five questions Trump’s Fed pick will face: Jay Powell, President Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Reserve, will preside over a relatively strong United States economy if confirmed by the Senate.
The unemployment rate has been 5 percent or lower for more than two years, U.S. stocks are blowing past record highs, and consumer optimism has reached its highest level in almost 20 years.
But Powell will still face critical issues during the start of his tenure, from whether to weigh in on Republican efforts to rewrite the tax code to how to handle an unprecedented debt sell-off.
He also faces an interesting confirmation process given that 20 Republicans voted against his confirmation when he was initially appointed to the Fed by former President Obama.
Here are the five major questions facing Powell ahead of his stint atop the Fed: http://bit.ly/2ApM89S.
Pelosi calls GOP tax plan ‘a moment of truth for America: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday called the upcoming vote on Republicans’ proposed tax overhaul bill “a moment of truth for America,” saying the plan could explode the national debt while hurting the middle class.
“What they do is it’s a sleight of hand, it’s a shell game, it’s a Ponzi scheme,” the California Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“They spread out this banquet for the wealthiest Americans, for corporate America, and they throw a few crumbs to the middle class and then they take them away.” http://bit.ly/2j3Wx6G.
Cornyn: Senate GOP tax plan to be released Thursday: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is predicting that Senate Republicans will unveil their tax-reform legislation on Thursday.
Asked about the bill, Cornyn said the “mark” — or the version drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) — would be released Thursday.
“Yep, well that’s the last I heard,” said Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, when asked if Thursday’s release date was “for sure.”
Spokespeople for Hatch didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the timing of the bill.
Cornyn added that the Finance Committee would start its mark up next week and Republicans are still aiming to pass their tax plan before leaving town for Thanksgiving.
The timeline, if Republicans stick to it, leaves senators with a tight schedule. The Hill’s Jordain Carney explains: http://bit.ly/2yCjtRG.
House to vote on repealing joint-employer rule: The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a bill to rescind the National Labor Relations Board’s ruling that made employers potentially liable for labor law violations committed by their subcontractors.
The Save Local Business Act, introduced by Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), changes the definition of an “employer” in the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Under the new definition a company could only be considered a joint-employer with its subcontractor if it “directly, actually and immediately” has control over essential terms and conditions of employment.
Those include hiring employees, discharging employees, determining individual employee rates of pay and benefits, day-to-day supervision of employees, assigning individual work schedules, positions and tasks, or administering employee discipline: http://bit.ly/2yAGbJN.
Broadcom proposes $130B deal to buy Qualcomm: Chip manufacturer Broadcom is proposing a $130 billion deal to purchase Qualcomm in what would be one of the biggest tech mergers in history.
On Monday, Broadcom made an unsolicited offer to pay $70 per share to buy its rival. For every share, the company would pay $60 in cash and $10 in Broadcom stock.
“This complementary transaction will position the combined company as a global communications leader with an impressive portfolio of technologies and products,” Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in a statement.
Qualcomm said in a statement that it had received the offer and its board of directors would be reviewing it.
The proposal comes days after Tan visited President Trump at the White House to announce that the Singapore-based company would be moving its operations to the U.S. Also at last week’s event were House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Gary Cohn, a top White House economic adviser.
“He’s a highly, highly respected man, a great, great executive,” Trump said of Tan during the event. http://bit.ly/2AoeFwl
Facebook offers mobile payments in UK: Facebook will allow people outside of the U.S. to send money using its messenger app for the first time.
Facebook Messenger head David Marcus said Monday that users in the United Kingdom would be able to use the feature as it rolls out in the coming weeks.
“In the U.S. most people use payments in Messenger to send less than $50 at a time,” Marcus said in a statement. “Our research shows the top reasons for sending money include celebrations, social, and festive occasions; it’s those everyday moments we’re trying to make a little easier.”
The company initially introduced the feature in 2015, as part of its effort to gain market share in the payments industry: http://bit.ly/2ziwn6D.
From The Hill’s opinion pages
Workers to see benefit of corporate tax cuts in their wages, by Glenn Hubbard
Mortgage interest deduction mostly benefits the rich — end it, by Ilya Somin
Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-release.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-release.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-release.thehill.com and nelis@digital-release.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis