The Senate voted Wednesday to start negotiations with the House on a $1.4 trillion tax cut bill, in the hopes of reaching a final bill before the end of the year.
The motion to start talks passed along party lines, 51-47, and it greenlights the official start of talks with the House, which passed its own tax cut bill Nov. 16 and voted to negotiate with the Senate on Tuesday.
The two chambers will have to iron out dozens of differences between the two bills, including individual tax rates, small business tax cuts and whether to zero out the Obamacare fine against people who do not purchase health insurance plans.
Republican lawmakers said they hope to pass a compromise plan through both chambers by Dec. 31.
“We still have more work ahead of us,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday. “We’ll vote to join our colleagues in a conference to finish our work on tax reform. The American people deserve taxes that are lower, simpler and fairer.”
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., appointed nine Republican lawmakers from the House to serve on the conference committee. The list is comprised of five lawmakers from the House Ways and Means Committee, the main tax-writing panel, and two lawmakers each from the Natural Resources Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said Wednesday he is hoping the Senate will agree to a bill that adopts the House provision repealing the alternative minimum tax and the estate tax.
Negotiations will move quickly, Scalise told Fox Business Network.
“We’re going to push this thing in the next two weeks,” Scalise said.
