House and Senate Republicans are heading for a messy showdown over how long to extend President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
The two chambers are at odds over how to advance Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process, a maneuver that will allow Republicans to advance their agenda without Democratic support.
As part of that, GOP lawmakers are aiming to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) before its provisions expire at the end of 2025, as well as implement more recent Trump tax priorities.
House Republicans adopted a resolution on Tuesday evening that would provide roughly $4.5 trillion for Trump’s tax priorities over the next 10 years, with a goal of working to eventually make them permanent. The Senate adopted a narrower competing resolution earlier this month that would leave taxes for a second bill to come later.
KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN
House and Senate Republicans are at odds over Trump’s tax cuts. (Getty Images)
But Senate GOP leaders are pushing to make the tax cuts permanent while Republicans are working through the reconciliation process.
Senate Republicans are signaling they would rewrite the House’s product significantly, a push that’s irked Republicans in that chamber.
“The Senate resolution punted on accomplishing the majority of President Trump’s agenda, and now they are further delaying and endangering it by announcing they will rewrite what narrowly passed the House,” a senior House GOP aide told Fox News Digital.
Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., congratulated House Republicans on passing their resolution but added, “A key part of that agenda is making the pro-growth Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, which is why we’ll work closely with our House colleagues to ensure the final package includes all of the president’s key tax priorities, including permanency, which will create long-term certainty for working families in America.”
Trump himself even weighed in on the matter. He wrote on his Truth Social app on Wednesday morning, “I hope the House and Senate are able to agree on making the Tax Cuts PERMANENT!”
But Republicans are also dealing with razor-thin margins in both chambers of Congress. In the House, they can currently only lose one Republican vote with full attendance, while Senate Republicans can afford three defectors.
Getting the House resolution across the line proved dramatic on Monday night, with Republican leaders working up until the final moments to convince conservative fiscal hawks who were wary of how much the legislation would add to the federal deficit.
President Donald Trump said he wants Republicans to make his 2017 tax cuts permanent. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
It could prove more difficult if they did the exercise again, but with even more funding allocated toward Trump’s tax priorities.
“The Senate can push all they want to. This is being driven by the House,” Ways & Means Committee member Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.
“I don’t see how it can be permanent,” another House Republican on Ways & Means told Fox News Digital.
Murphy denied that Trump’s earlier Truth Social post made the situation more difficult for their side, however, explaining the ultimate “goal is” to make those provisions permanent.
The Senate advanced its own narrower version of the plan that would split Trump’s priorities into two parts earlier this month. The resolution that passed would repeal some progressive Biden administration policies and provide new funding for defense and border security, while leaving taxes for a second bill.
A significant number of House Republicans balked at that plan, worried that tax cuts could expire for millions of Americans if two reconciliation bills prove too heavy a lift.
But Senate Republicans want to spend more time cobbling together a tax plan they believe is closer to what Trump wants, and that this reconciliation opportunity is the best lane to do it.
GOP LAWMAKER CALLS FOR CONGRESSIONAL HEARING OVER DC PLANE CRASH
House Ways & Means Committee Chair Jason Smith is spearheading the push for one bill. (Tom Williams/Getty Images)
“A short-term extension of President Trump’s signature tax cuts would potentially leave future extensions vulnerable to Democrat presidents and Democrats in Congress, where we risk losing them forever and undoing President Trump’s legacy,” a senior Senate GOP aide told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We have to give greater certainty for working families. With President Trump in the White House, we have a unique opportunity to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. The Senate will have to rewrite House Republicans’ budget resolution in order to do so.”
The senior House GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital said, however, “Republicans in both chambers want to deliver on President Trump’s promise and the American people’s mandate for a lengthy extension of the Trump tax cuts.”
“Congress can do this quickly by passing the only resolution that has already passed through one chamber of Congress – the House resolution – that has the capacity to implement the full Trump agenda,” they said.
