A Republican-controlled Senate committee Monday rolled again the SALT deduction cap to $10,000 in its first draft of President Trump’s sprawling price range invoice, a dramatic reversal from the $40,000 that was painstakingly negotiated simply final month by a bunch of GOP lawmakers largely from the New York suburbs.
The Senate finance committee penciled within the $10,000 determine, which might symbolize no change from the present cap on writing off state and native taxes, in its preliminary language of the Large Stunning Invoice that features trillions in tax and spending cuts.
Westchester County Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York), one in every of a handful of Republican Home members who vowed to dramatically increase the cap, wasted no time rejecting the $10,000 Senate proposal.
“Consider this the response to the Senate….DEAD ON ARRIVAL,” Lawler tweeted.
AP
U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler. (AP)
“Everyone knows this 10K number will have to go up,” added Rep. Elise Stefanik. “And it will.”
Lawler and different Republicans from prosperous suburban districts in New York, New Jersey and California ran on the ironclad promise they’d eliminate the cap on SALT altogether or a minimum of dramatically improve it as a result of it largely hurts their constituents in high-tax blue states.
Democratic critics predict Lawler and his allies will finally cave and comply with no matter deal Trump and different Republican allies comply with.
“House Republicans promised to fix (SALT),” mentioned Democratic Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries. “They are failing miserably.”
The GOP SALT rebels supplied Home Speaker Mike Johnson with the slim 215-214 margin he wanted to cross the invoice earlier than a Memorial Day deadline. However now the motion has shifted to the Senate the place Republicans are tinkering with SALT and different key provisions, together with doubtlessly deeper cuts to Medicaid.
Each chambers of Congress have to cross the very same invoice, a course of referred to as reconciliation that may permit the Senate to evade a bill-killing filibuster.
Lawler and Rep. Nick LaLota (R-New York) have repeatedly vowed to vote towards the invoice if it doesn’t embrace the upper SALT cap. They are saying the rise to $40,000 is non-negotiable and imagine they’ve important leverage as a result of the cap would expire fully if no invoice is handed.
Senate Republicans, who maintain a 53-47 majority, counter that every little thing is on the desk to win the 50 votes they should cross the invoice.
A number of key senators are fiscal hawks who insist they gained’t vote for the invoice except it contains a lot deeper spending cuts and fewer goodies like the upper SALT cap that may increase the federal price range deficit.
Initially Revealed: June 16, 2025 at 3:39 PM EDT