President Donald Trump’s campaign tax pledges — no taxes on tips and overtime pay, plus new tax breaks for car buyers and seniors — are the centerpiece of a multitrillion dollar package that will serve as Republicans’ signature legislative effort.
In a draft version of the tax bill released on Monday, House Republicans highlighted the president’s populist priorities in a package that would enact those cuts through 2028. The bill would also make the lower individual tax rates Trump signed in 2017 permanent.
WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday unveiled the legislative text of their sweeping tax proposal for the massive bill for President Donald Trump's agenda, but a key divide within the conference remains: how much to lift the cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., convened a video call Monday morning with members of both the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and the SALT Caucus, a group of blue-state Republicans who have been fighting to raise the SALT cap much higher than the current level of $10,000. While several proposals were discussed, GOP lawmakers were unable to agree on a number.
During an all-member GOP conference call in the afternoon, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, told colleagues that the final SALT number was still a work in progress, according to two lawmakers on the call.
The legislative text currently calls for the SALT deduction cap to be hiked to $30,000, and includes limits for those who make more than $400,000 a year. But SALT Caucus members — including Reps. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Young Kim, R-Calif. — have said that number is a nonstarter.
One House Republican close to the process told NBC News there would be enough GOP votes to sink the bill if that SALT figure remains in the final product. Republicans can afford just three defections for the final package once it reaches the House floor.
Lawler said there was "zero chance" he would support the current version of the bill.