Legislative Activity International Tax Reform v. Inversions Following up on Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) recent acknowledgment that his “corporate integration” proposal has been delayed, at least by “a few weeks,” it now appears that the House Ways and Means Committee may miss its self-imposed goal of March 31 by which to release … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Democrats Continue to Push for a Budget Deal In the coming weeks, Senate Democrats will implement a strategy intended to force Republicans into a budget deal. Senate Democratic leadership does not want to rely on President Obama’s vetoes of appropriations bills to force Republicans into negotiations, and will likely prevent any appropriations … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Joins House in Appropriations Effort Senate Appropriators begin work on their FY 2016 spending bills this week, with subcommittee markups scheduled Tuesday for the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Energy-Water appropriations bills. Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) has not publicly revealed how he apportions the mandated topline discretionary funding level of $1.07 trillion … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Democrats Continue to Push for a Budget Deal The President and Democrats in the House and Senate continue to pressure Republicans for a budget deal to replace the sequester’s strict spending limits. Most House Democrats voted against the two sequester-level appropriations bills that were recently considered on the House floor, President Obama has … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Republicans Focus on Small Businesses, Democrats Target Tax “Loopholes” Following a busy week for tax-writers – which included several hearings on “Tax Day” to address tax reform and the potential impact on small businesses – there is growing discussion about the possibility of pursuing business-only tax reform. To that end, Senate Finance Committee … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity President Obama, Secretary Lew Outline Tax Reform Proposals As mentioned in previous coverage of the State of the Union Address, President Obama has proposed approximately $320 billion in new taxes, aimed largely at investment income and large financial institutions, with revenues raised from these proposals to be dedicated principally to a new or … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Lawmakers Consider Energy Tax Reform On Wednesday, September 17, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing titled “Reforming America’s Outdated Energy Tax Code.” During the hearing, discussion centered on how to best address certain energy-related provisions within the U.S. Tax Code. Lawmakers discussed taking a technology neutral, “performance-based” approach, rather than considering the … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Student Debit Cards Last Thursday, September 26, Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (OH), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Dick Durbin (IL), as well as Reps. George Miller (CA), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maxine Waters (CA) and Peter Welch (VT), sent letters to bank CEOs asking for information related to their agreements with institutions of … Continue Reading