Still no agreement on SALT despite Trump tax bill progress

by Steven T. Dennis and Jack Fitzpatrick

House Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from a late-night meeting Monday with holdout Republicans from New York and other high-tax states saying they had made “lots of progress” on a deal over the divisive state and local tax deduction. 

But the meeting failed to produce a deal on SALT, among the thorniest issues for House leaders navigating the political realities of pushing an expensive tax bill through the narrow and factious Republican majority. 

Johnson said he still plans for the House to vote on the package by the end of the week. “I think we’re getting very close,” he told reporters after the meeting. 

The bill approved last week by the House tax committee sets a $30,000 cap for individuals and couples. That draft called for phasing down the deduction for those earning $400,000 or more. That plan was quickly rejected by several lawmakers who called the plan insultingly low.

The current writeoff is capped at $10,000, a limit imposed in President Donald Trump’s first-term tax overhaul.

The lawmakers — New York’s Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Andrew Garbarino and Elise Stefanik, New Jersey’s Tom Kean and Young Kim of California — have threatened to reject any tax package that does not raise the SALT cap sufficiently.

Garbarino said Johnson made the group several offers and that they’re awaiting more analysis Tuesday morning. 

“I’m just happy we’re having the discussion and they’re working with us,” Garbarino said. 

Trump on Tuesday plans to go to the Capitol and urge his party’s lawmakers to unite behind the legislation.

Republicans are also squabbling over spending reductions in the bill, including weighing cuts to Medicaid health coverage and nutritional programs for low-income households.

They are trying to keep revenue losses from their tax-cut package down to a self-imposed limit of $4.5 trillion over 10 years. The current package has a $3.8- trillion revenue loss.

Copyright Bloomberg News