House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady introduced Friday a slightly modified version of the GOP’s tax bill his committee will take up next week that makes adjustments to inflation calculations and other technical changes.
The new version moves up the effective date for when the chained consumer price index, a method of tying tax and spending issues to inflation, from 2023 to 2018.
It also removes a section in the bill rolled out Thursday that would have made adjustments to how certain payments to foreign recipients are treated, and makes other technical changes in order to comply with Senate rules.
“This is another important step on our path to pro-growth tax reform that will deliver more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecks for people across our country,” said Mr. Brady, Texas Republican.
Mr. Brady also said he plans to introduce an additional amendment that makes more “substantive improvements” to the bill Monday, when his committee is scheduled to begin its revisions.
The Joint Committee on Taxation, which scores tax legislation for Congress, estimated that the new plan would cost $1.414 trillion over 10 years — slightly less than the $1.487 trillion estimate for the plan unveiled Thursday.
Mr. Brady said at a Politico event earlier in the day he expects his committee to finish its revisions by next Thursday.
He also said that there would be no House floor amendments to the bill, and that changes would be made in his committee and potentially in a conference with the Senate down the road.
House Republicans are hoping they can pass their massive overhaul of the tax code, which slashes corporate and individual rates and weeds out various loopholes and exemptions, by Thanksgiving.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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