The Trump Administration announced today that it intends to nominate Alex Azar as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Azar served at HHS under the George W. Bush Administration from 2001 to 2007, first as general counsel and deputy secretary. He served in senior leadership roles at Lilly USA between 2007 and late 2016.
The first HHS Secretary in the Trump Administration, Tom Price, resigned earlier this fall due to the fallout over his use of chartered flights.
The House Republican Leadership unveiled their much-awaited Tax Cuts and American Jobs act.
At first glance, the measure would:
The charitable deduction will not change, and the tax provisions related to 401(k)s are unchanged.
A section-by-section of the measure is here.
Federal Relations is still going thought the measure and will continue to provide updates.
Today, the House adopted the Senate-passed FY2018 budget resolution, H. Con. Res. 71, that would lay down the foundation for tax cuts. While a budget resolution is traditionally used to set up the broad parameters for spending for a given fiscal year, this year’s resolution is being used as a vehicle to set up procedures to move changes to the tax code. The measure passed by a vote of 216-212 and allows allows for fast-track consideration of tax overhaul legislation, without being subject to filibuster in the Senate.
Assuming that the budget resolution would pass, the House leadership announced earlier this week a draft tax measure would be unveiled next week pending the approval of the budget in the House. With passage, the House Ways & Means Committee, which has jurisdiction on all revenue raisers, is on track to release their tax bill as early as November 1. What the House’s reformed package will contain is still a moving target. There have been many issues raised with proposed cuts and offsets to such a measure — the most recent issue is the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. Eliminating this deduction has been a big issue for Republicans in blue, high-tax states, such as New York and California, who want to preserve the deduction. Other recent issues include limiting the 401(k) pretax contributions, expanding the child care tax credit, and including Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) as an offset for tax cuts.
Stay tuned.
The Senate has begun its floor debate on the FY2018 budget resolution. As mentioned previously, although usually used to determine parameters of federal spending, this year’s package contains a set of procedures that would enable the chamber to adopt a tax package by a simple majority.
With all Democrats expected to oppose it, one Republican Senator currently back home for health reasons, and a number of other members of the party expressing reservations about certain parts of the legislation, it is not yet certain that the Republicans have the votes for its passage. A long list of votes on amendments is expected between now and the final vote on passage, which could take place on Thursday.
The full Senate is expected to take up this week its FY2018 budget resolution. The House cleared its version earlier this month.
While the budget resolution usually lays out the budget parameters for a given year, the primary goal of the FY2018 budget resolution is to set up for procedures that would allow Republicans to pass a tax reform package with the minimum number of votes. The House adopted resolution would also allow for a similar process.
While Republicans are united in their push for a big tax package, there is disagreement on several issues associated with such a measure, including whether a tax-cut bill should increase the debt. Read more here and here.