Politico: MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Might there be another tax vote in Congress around the time fall rolls in?
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said on Tuesday that he hopes the GOP can have a new tax bill introduced by the time Congress leaves for its August recess that could then be passed out of the House in September or October.
That’s basically the timetable the White House has laid out for a potential Tax Cut 2.0 effort that officials there say they largely expect to focus on making permanent the new lower individual rates from H.R. 1 (115).
Still, Brady also appeared to indirectly nod at the obstacles that another tax bill would have across the way in the Senate. “They may have a different timetable there, but I see an early fall passage out of the House to build momentum,” he said at an Americans for Prosperity event in his district outside Houston. (Another issue to consider: How long lawmakers will actually be in Washington this fall, with the mid-terms looming.) Other highlights from Brady’s appearance: The Ways and Means chairman detailed other areas of the tax system where he’s hoping to see further changes, including retirement savings, promoting innovation and indexing capital gains for inflation.
And Brady also asked for AFP’s help in what he called the “bigger challenge right in front of us” — ensuring that more taxpayers know that they just got a tax cut, a request that underscores that GOP officials believe they still have work to do to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a boost for their candidates this fall. “A lot of Americans don’t know that it has helped them,” Brady said, noting that when he asks town halls whether they’ve noticed a tax cut that “most of the audience look at each other like, ‘what is he talking about?'” “They didn’t know to check. And in a world of direct deposit, they don’t even know how to check,” Brady added. If that changes, Brady noted, “they’re going to support conservatives and Republicans in November.”