Republicans are barreling into a lobbying frenzy next week, when House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady plans to unveil a sweeping tax bill to remake the U.S. economy that’s being crafted with rigorous secrecy.
The stage was set with the House’s adoption Thursday of a budget resolution designed to speed the course of tax legislation and kick off a three-week sprint toward a House bill. Now, lobbyists representing every corner of the economy are poised to first devour, then attack what may be hundreds of pages of legislation that Brady says he’ll release Nov. 1.
Special interests from realtors to dairy farmers will be trying to save their industry-specific tax breaks, said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity. His group, which is backed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, supports ending such breaks.
“It’s pretty fierce,” Phillips said. “We met with Brady on Tuesday and he was saying their offices are swamped with all the special interest groups swarming in asking to be protected.”
President Donald Trump has promised that middle-class Americans will be the biggest beneficiaries of the tax overhaul. But it remains to be seen which groups will lose their advantages -- a necessary step to help pay for cutting tax rates. Even Republican members of Brady’s committee say they don’t know whether any decisions have been made.
“The problem is that Ways and Means has somewhat been kept out of the loop with details,” Representative Jim Renacci of Ohio, a member of the House tax-writing panel, said in an interview. “There are still a lot of hurdles to get it done.”
The bill is supposed to be released in just five days.
‘80 Percent Plus’
Leaving such details under wraps has become “almost a double-edged sword,” said lobbyist Will Hollier, whose clients include Microsoft Corp. and Visa Inc. The secrecy has allowed for some efficiency, but it’s also prevented GOP leaders from winning broad support for the legislation in their own conference so far, he said.
A key test will be how House leaders deal with the state and local tax deduction, the first flash point in the debate. Trump and congressional leaders have proposed abolishing that break, which benefits high-tax states that tend to vote Democratic. But several Republican House members from such states want to preserve the break in some form.