Congress Faces Shutdown Deadline, Tax Relief Act Uncertain in Senate

With Congress facing a midnight deadline tomorrow night to pass four of the 12 appropriations bills to avoid a partial government shutdown, the House passed two continuing resolutions today.  The two new deadlines to pass the spending bills are March 8th and March 22nd.  There are expectations that the actual language of possibly six of the funding bills will be released this weekend, which is a significant step in bringing the legislation to the floor for consideration.  

The bills will likely be brought to the floor of the House under suspension of the rules, meaning debate is limited to 40 minutes, points of order are waived, and no amendments are allowed.  Under suspension of the rules, the legislation must pass by a two-thirds vote of Members present and voting.  It will take a combination of Republicans and Democrats to pass the bill.  The process must be bipartisan as there is a large group of Republicans that would rather force significant budget cuts with a year-long continuing resolution.  In today’s vote, 97 Republicans voted against the continuing resolutions.  The continuing resolutions passed today now go to the Senate, where they are expected to be passed before tomorrow’s midnight deadline.  

We also want to update you on the status of H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. This is the tax legislation that contains our affordable housing credit provisions.  H.R. 7024 passed the House on January 31st by a resounding vote of 357-70. 

The timing on Senate consideration of the tax bill remains unclear.  While we are encouraged that a number of Senate Republicans have joined Democrats in making positive comments about the House-passed bill, Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) continues to voice his view that the Senate should be provided the opportunity to make changes to it.

In a statement released on February 28th, Senator Crapo stated that “efforts to pressure the Senate to ‘take it or leave it’ and categorically dismiss a Senate regular order process have only amplified calls for changes and amendments.”  He particularly noted his concern about the expansion of the child tax credit in H.R. 7024 but also discussed additional changes he and other Senate Republicans would like to consider.  Senator Crapo stated that he is “committed to seeking a bipartisan resolution that a majority of Senate Republicans can support” and said he hopes “the bill’s proponents commit to pursuing a more constructive strategy to achieve a mutually agreeable outcome.” 

Any changes by the Senate to the House-passed bill would require the House to vote again on it, a route that concerns supporters of the current bill.  In that regard, our Hill champions continue looking for appropriate legislative vehicles to carry our tax provisions.  There are several must-pass bills that Congress needs to act on, including the government funding legislation we discussed earlier.   

We need to keep up our efforts to encourage Senators to support moving forward on H.R., 7024.  To that end, we urge you to reach out to your Senators and ask them to voice their support for H.R. 7024 to the Senate Leadership.  Thanks for all you do, and let us know if we can help.