With Congress back in session following its August recess, one agenda item stands above the rest in terms of priority: tax reform. After several failed attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, and with few other major achievements nearly nine months into the 115th Congress, Republicans are in need of a win … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Ways and Means Committee Kicks Off Tax Reform Efforts with First Public Hearings On Thursday, May 18, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing titled “How Tax Reform Will Grow Our Economy and Create Jobs.” The hearing – which is the first in what is expected to be a series of … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Time for Tax Reform? With the GOP’s healthcare reform efforts having fallen apart, Members and staff from the House Ways and Means Committee will likely now turn their full time and attention to another key priority: tax reform. See our analysis of the current landscape here. This Week’s Hearings: On Tuesday, March 28, the House … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity The House With the 115th Congress entering month three, tax reform continues to be a focal point of the political debate in Washington. Intent to move forward with their tax reform “Blueprint” released in June 2016, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), and other tax-writers have … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Corporate “Tax Dodging” in Spotlight as Tax Reform Timing in Question It is becoming increasingly clear that the timing of tax reform is largely tied to what happens with the House Blueprint. Assuming the proposal moves forward largely as is, the House is aiming to wrap up debate and successfully enact tax reform by … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity The Prospects for Tax Reform in Trump Town With the 115th Congress nearing the end of month two, tax reform continues to be a focal point of the political debate in Washington. Intent to move forward with their tax reform “Blueprint” released in June 2016, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Ways and Means … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity GOP Sets Out Timeline for Tax Reform Last week, Republican lawmakers traveled to Philadelphia for a retreat to discuss their priorities for the 115th Congress. Among the top priorities for the GOP: tax reform. According to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), the House will turn its full time and attention to tax reform … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Border Adjustability in the Spotlight Though healthcare and repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act have thus far been the primary focus of the tax-writing committees this Congress, policymakers are still continuing to move forward with tax reform. Among the proposals in the House Republicans’ tax reform “Blueprint” receiving the most attention in recent weeks … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs’ State Attorneys General Practice Group is comprised of lawyers who have served at senior levels in state AG offices around the country and whose practices focus, to one degree or another, on representing clients before these increasingly assertive and powerful, yet often overlooked, government agencies, as explained in detail here. In these … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity No Trucking Rider in Continuing Resolution The current fiscal year ends on September 30, and Congress will need to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to continue funding the federal government. The Senate is expected to vote on a CR that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced last week that does not include a … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Continuing Resolution Likely, with Potential Trucking Rider The current fiscal year ends on September 30, and Congress will need to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to continue funding the federal government. The Senate is expected to pass a CR this week that would fund the federal government through December 9. That approach would … Continue Reading
Congress to Continue Focus on Appropriations The current fiscal year ends on September 30, and Congress will need to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) in the next few weeks to continue funding the federal government. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proposed advancing a CR that would extend funding for the federal government … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity The Long March to Tax Reform Continues On June 24, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) released the House GOP’s Task Force on Tax Reform’s long-awaited tax reform “Blueprint,” which lays out the GOP’s tax policy agenda for 2017. Specifically, and as we discuss in greater detail in our alert, … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Coming Soon: The GOP’s Tax Reform “Blueprint” With House Republicans expected to roll out their comprehensive tax “blueprint” this month – and lawmakers set to leave Washington on Friday, June 24 – it is likely that we will see the proposal released this week. It is quite possible, however, that the final product may … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Congressional Tax-Writers Press on With Tax Reform Proposals This week, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Policy, chaired by Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA), will hold a hearing to examine Member proposals to improve the current U.S. tax system. This hearing is part of a series of hearings on tax reform and … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Congressional Republicans Place DOL’s Fiduciary Rule in Crosshairs Last week, on April 19, just one day after Senate Republicans introduced a resolution to disapprove and nullify the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiduciary Rule, House Republicans introduced a companion resolution also targeting the rulemaking. Two days later, on April 21, the House Education and … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate to Consider Business Tax Reform Proposals Following multiple hearings on tax reform thus far this year in the House Ways and Means Committee, this week the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on business tax reform. During the hearing, the difference between Republican and Democrat approaches to taxing corporate income, including … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Agriculture Committee Votes to Reauthorize CFTC Following a Senate Appropriations hearing last week to review the FY17 Budget Requests for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), on Thursday, April 14, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted 11-9, to reauthorize the CFTC. Though the timing of Senate … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Budget Resolution Markup Possible This Week House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) has kept the Budget Committee’s schedule open this week in the hopes of marking up an FY 2017 budget resolution. While the markup has not yet been scheduled, it would likely take place on Tuesday or Wednesday. Chairman Price and … Continue Reading
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 House Republicans Look for Mandatory Cuts to Make Passage of a Budget Resolution Possible House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) and House Republican Leadership continue to look for cuts to mandatory spending to offset the $30 billion increase in discretionary spending for FY 2017 called for in last year’s bipartisan budget deal. … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Lawmakers Still Divided on Labor’s Fiduciary Rule With the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiduciary Rule now with the Office of Management and Budget and being prepared for release in final form later this spring, last week Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) emphasized his opposition to the proposal, noting that he is … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Democratic Tax-Writers Remain Focused on Inversions, Despite Push for International Tax Reform Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee held its first hearing on international tax reform this session. During the hearing, Members and witnesses discussed the need for tax reform, the benefits and challenges that come from doing international tax reform … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Financial Services Committee Sets Agenda for the Year Ahead As Senate Banking Committee Largely Silent Following the recent House Financial Services Committee retreat, we expect financial services lawmakers – at least in the House – to begin moving forward with their 2016 policy agenda. Among their priorities for this year (many of … Continue Reading
