House Tax Writers Left Out Of Latest Gop Reconciliation Bill

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith is steamed over the fact tax provisions are not included in the party-line budget package — something he has said would prompt him to oppose the bill that already faces intra-party headwinds.

The Missouri Republican has aired his frustrations with GOP leaders in recent days, and in a suggested in a brief interview Wednesday with POLITICO a tax component might still be added to the $95 billion policy and military spending bill, though that appeared to be a long shot.

“Nothing is ever finalized over here until the last vote,” Smith said ahead of the scheduled Budget Committee markup of the resolution Thursday morning. In a separate interview later in the day, Smith said he had “a lot of comments” but declined to elaborate.

The chair’s reaction and that of other Republicans on the committee came after Smith publicly warned his GOP colleagues his input would be essential to any party-line spending package. Yet despite their misgivings after the bill was unveiled, there's an acknowledgment that wedging in tax language could topple the plan.

In an interview Wednesday, Majority Leader Steve Scalise was sympathetic to Smith’s concerns and went as far as to say his tax priorities could be included in an aspirational fourth party-line bill — a bold statement given the fact GOP leaders are tamping down concerns among fiscal conservatives who are mad the current package would not be paid for.

“I was speaking with Jason about it yesterday,” Scalise said Wednesday evening. “I share the concerns he’s raising.”

Scalise said the White House “has talked about a real strong interest in keeping [this bill] narrow.”

A senior House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely said on Wednesday lawmakers were chatting about the possibility of a fourth reconciliation gambit — prompting Smith to quip: “How about 5, 6 and 7?”

'We want to be involved'

Earlier in the day, Vice President JD Vance trekked up to Capitol Hill to try to quell concerns about the filibuster-skirting package that leaders want to pass before they leave for the summer recess next week.

Vance told lawmakers it was the only way to pass the elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act that President Donald Trump has been clamoring for. But Vance’s pleas did little to sway the skeptics.

While some tax writers in the House and Senate shrugged at being left out of the latest reconciliation process, others were not happy.

“We want to be involved,” said Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), who sits on both the Ways and Means and the Budget Committees. “We always want to be involved.”

“Chairman Smith's definitely made that known,” he noted, and said he would follow his lead. Moore said he had not yet decided how he would vote on the budget resolution in committee on Thursday.

Moore acknowledged the political realities at play — a reconciliation bill full of tax provisions in the months leading up to the midterm elections could create votes too difficult for Republicans to take, though he conceded he does not know Senate dynamics that well.

Ultimately, Moore suggested there could be other opportunities — perhaps even bipartisan — for tax policy at the end of the year in the lame-duck period. “We're game to figure it all out,” he said.

When asked about tax being left out, Ways and Means member Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said only: “It’s surprising, let’s put it that way.”

The tax omission came in the face of a threat last month by Smith to oppose the plan if it didn’t include tax — a potentially big blow to their plans, given Republicans’ tenuous hold on the chamber.

He had wanted additional tax cuts to address voters’ concerns about affordability.

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), meanwhile, wanted to carve savings out of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and also prevent undocumented immigrants from living in housing financed by the low-income housing tax credit.

Easier without tax

Jettisoning tax though would make it easier to move the bill through the Senate’s arcane procedural rules. There, a reconciliation plan with a tax component could allow Democrats to offer scads of tax-related amendments that would put Republicans in a tough position just months ahead of the midterm elections.

Opening the door to tax would also invite a big debate over which provisions to include and not include. And it would potentially explode the cost of the bill, exacerbating problems with the chamber’s fiscal hawks who were already unhappy with the plan’s $95 billion price tag.

But expectations were low that tax would catch a ride on the plan, and even some senior tax writers did not seem upset by the decision.

Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) said he was more concerned with the lack of spending cuts.

“That’s my fixation,” he said. “We’re going to do our third reconciliation bill and cut no spending.”

Said Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), another tax writer: “Listen, on any of these reconciliation bills, you just try to get through what you can get through, and the determination has been just work on military, work on the SAVE Act, and work on agriculture. So that’s really the work we’re working on right now.”

Reporters Jennifer Scholtes and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.