House Republican leaders moved ahead last week with a budget plan that would set up a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill to authorize $95 billion in new spending for defense, intelligence, agriculture, and state-level voting integrity. The House Committee on the Budget approved it along party lines and a floor vote is expected this week. 

The House budget resolution would direct $60 billion for defense, $13 billion for intelligence and national security, $12 billion in farming assistance, and $10 billion to finance voter integrity reforms at the state level. The budget resolution is silent on tax policy and includes no revenue or spending offsets, which has sparked some grumbling among House conservatives. Republicans have not advanced major tax policies since last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Since then, Republican tax leaders have been sidelined as Congress advanced a second reconciliation bill and a major housing bill, both with no tax title.

If the House can approve the budget resolution for Reconciliation 3.0 this week, its prospects in the Senate are uncertain at best given deficit concerns and fear of the politically challenging vote-a-rama amendment process on the Senate floor. 

At last week's Committee on the Budget markup, House Democrats previewed some of the floor amendments Senate Republicans would likely face if reconciliation moves forward. Democrat amendments included an attempt to restore the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credit (PTC) for purchasing health coverage. 

Democrats also repeatedly used the following language as a revenue offset for their amendments: "requiring the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share, which may include reversing the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations passed as part of P.L. 119-21, raising the corporate tax rate…." 

With so much uncertainty and so little time to sort it out, reconciliation remains a major open question, which again points to the post-election lame duck session of Congress as perhaps the best opportunity for action on tax policy this year. #TaxTake

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Marc will present the American Staffing Association (ASA) webinar "Federal Tax Policy and the Impact of the Pending Mid-Term Elections" on August 20.

The information contained in this communication is not intended as legal advice or as an opinion on specific facts. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. For more information, please contact one of the senders or your existing Miller & Chevalier lawyer contact. The invitation to contact the firm and its lawyers is not to be construed as a solicitation for legal work. Any new lawyer-client relationship will be confirmed in writing.

This, and related communications, are protected by copyright laws and treaties. You may make a single copy for personal use. You may make copies for others, but not for commercial purposes. If you give a copy to anyone else, it must be in its original, unmodified form, and must include all attributions of authorship, copyright notices, and republication notices. Except as described above, it is unlawful to copy, republish, redistribute, and/or alter this presentation without prior written consent of the copyright holder.