News

It’s crunch time for Congress and the White House on what House Speaker Paul Ryan has called “once-in-a-generation tax reform.” Tax rates, deductions, and policies set in stone are up for negotiation for the first time in decades.

Congress gave itself an extension Friday, passing a five-day continuing resolution that will keep the government open until Dec. 16, when it hopes to pass a package that bundles the year-end spending bill with a host of other provisions.

Big package under the tree?

Just a few years ago, many people thought that comprehensive tax reform would be accomplished with a bipartisan deal — a “Kumbaya” moment when President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner would join hands to remake the US tax code.

Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX) will succeed incoming House Speaker Paul Ryan as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The White House and Congressional leaders have agreed on a two-year budget deal that will raise the debt limit and the spending limits set by the so-called sequestration process, according to sources close to the negotiations. The increased spending will be equally divided between defense and non-defense spending — increasing spending caps by $25 billion each in fiscal 2016 and by $15 billion each in fiscal 2017, according to a source briefed on the package.

Kevin Brady (R-TX), the second most senior member of the powerful Ways and Mean Committee, writes a forceful post on the committee website that urges Congress to make the tax provisions known as “tax extenders” a permanent part of the tax code.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told Politico that he will back a “clean” funding bill that will fund the government through December.

Concord joins more than 2,000 other companies to sign a letter to members of Congress, urging them to pass legislation extending or making permanent the set of tax incentives known as “tax extenders.”