Each week while Congress is in session, our Policy team delivers a key update to highlight a topical benefits, health, or retirement news item from the Hill, such as a newly introduced bill, a summary of a committee hearing, or another hot-button matter.
The Senate Finance Committee released its initial budget reconciliation text (section-by-section) on June 16. The text does not include changes to the tax incentive for retirement savings nor does it contain many of the benefits-related provisions from the House-passed bill, such as provisions concerning Health Savings Accounts and ICHRAs. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) does not intend to hold a markup of the bill, but leadership is discussing potential changes and a new version of the bill could be released early this week. The Joint Committee on Taxation released cost projections on the Senate Finance tax provisions on June 21, finding that the provisions cost $441 billion over 10 years using the current policy baseline.
Republican Congressional leadership is still publicly stating that they intend to pass the legislation in time for a July 4th signing ceremony, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles traveled to Capitol Hill last week to encourage lawmakers to move quickly. However, Senate Republicans have not yet worked out their differences on key issues related to, among other things, Medicaid cuts, deficit reduction, and the state and local tax deduction. Democrats are also actively slowing the process with procedural objections that have already resulted in a number of provisions being stricken from the bill as a result of the Byrd Rule, which generally requires all provisions included in a budget reconciliation bill to be directly related to the budget. Meetings with the Senate parliamentarian to discuss Byrd Rule issues are ongoing.
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