Senate Republicans get a chance to redeem themselves next week after failing to move a healthcare reform bill this year, by making progress on another big GOP agenda item: tax reform.
But to do it, they’ll likely have to make a few changes to the tax bill to round up enough votes.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hasn’t officially scheduled a vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which the Senate Finance Committee approved earlier this month. But a vote is planned for next week, a top GOP aide told the Washington Examiner.
“When the Senate returns after Thanksgiving, I will bring this must-pass legislation to the floor for further debate and open consideration,” McConnell, R-Ky., said before the Senate left town last week.
The Senate returns Monday afternoon to take a vote to advance Gregory Katsas, who President Trump nominated to serve as U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. But behind the scenes, GOP leaders will be negotiating with fellow Republicans to ensure they can secure at least 50 votes needed to pass the tax bill.
Republican leaders in both parties will also meet with President Trump next week to talk about tax reform and a year-end spending package, putting added pressure on the GOP to get somewhere on taxes, which is the top priority for both Congress and the White House.
Senate Republicans control 52 votes — enough to advance and pass the bill without any help from Democrats — but not all GOP lawmakers are committed to voting for the tax bill.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., announced he won’t vote for the measure unless changes are made to expand tax cuts for small businesses. And Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, opposes a provision in the bill that would repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate to purchase health insurance.
“I want to see changes in that bill,” Collins told ABC last week. “And I think there will be changes.”
But some key Republicans have signaled support for the bill.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who was among a handful of Republicans who blocked an Obamacare repeal bill earlier this year, said she backs the plan to repeal the mandate. Republicans earned Murkowski’s support by promising to take up a separate bill that would provide new federal funding to support Obamacare’s cost-sharing subsidies, which are payments to insurance companies that help lower premiums.
“I believe that the federal government should not force anyone to buy something they do not wish to buy in order to avoid being taxed,” Murkowski wrote last week in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who also voted against an Obamacare overhaul bill earlier this year, has praised the Senate GOP for moving the tax bill through the Finance Committee rather than rushing it to the floor.
“I value the process of moving important pieces of legislation through regular order,” McCain said. “I am hopeful that when we return from the Thanksgiving recess to consider tax reform on the Senate floor, we will see this process continue, with both sides of the aisle having sufficient opportunity to debate the merits of tax reform and offer amendments.”
The Senate is eager to pass a tax bill before mid-December, when they could be faced with losing a Senate seat. Alabama’s special election takes place on Dec. 12, and embattled Republican candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of sexual misconduct with underage teen girls, is tied in polls against his opponent, Democrat Doug Jones.
If Jones wins, the Senate GOP could be left with a 51-seat majority and much less room to pass tax reform with only Republican votes.
A Senate-passed bill would head to a negotiating conference with the House, which passed its own tax reform measure earlier this month. The two bills are fundamentally similar, but there are significant differences that would have to be worked out.
The Senate bill, for example, maintains the estate tax that the House bill phases out. The Senate bill also delays the corporate tax cut until 2019, which some House Republicans have called “a nonstarter.”
Elsewhere, the House next week will consider a bill to improve access to manufactured housing by rolling back a regulation in the Dodd-Frank banking reform law that had hindered loans for prefabricated homes, which include mobile homes.
“This bill is for the millions who rely on manufactured housing but have been seriously harmed by crushing federal regulations,” said Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., a sponsor of the bill.
The House will also vote on legislation that would give agencies the authority to extend the probationary period from one year to two years for new federal workers, including competitive service appointments and supervisors. It’s easier for the federal government to fire workers during this probationary period, and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said his bill will make it easier for federal agencies to ensure that only qualified people are in working there.
