Democratic lawmakers expressed confidence that Congress will expand the federal deduction for state and local taxes as part of President Joe Biden’s social-spending package even though the proposal was omitted from a framework agreement announced Thursday.
“SALT will be in the endgame, yes,” House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal told reporters after a House Democratic caucus meeting with Biden at the Capitol on Thursday. He said he’s “waiting to see” if the SALT plan will resemble the latest idea of restoring the full deduction for two years, then returning to the current $10,000 limit for four years.
Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey said Thursday morning that talks were heading toward a two-year suspension of the cap.
SALT has emerged as one of the key issues for a contingent of House Democrats, largely representing high-tax areas in New York, New Jersey and California. They have said that SALT, which was restricted in the 2017 Republican tax law to a $10,000 deduction, must be included in the Biden agenda to win their votes.
“We’ll get SALT,” New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer, who’s helping lead advocates of the tax break, said as he entered the meeting with Biden.
—With assistance from Laura Davison.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.