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WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune told – News exclusively he is targeting a July 4 deadline to get the big budget reconciliation plan that would extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts– adding no tax on tips, Social Security income, or overtime wages–to the president’s desk for his signature.
This is welcome news for the president and his team, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also has recently said he hopes for a July 4 date for the package to be wrapped up. The package is also expected to fund more of the president’s immigration priorities, as well as energy dominance measures.
Thune’s comments came during a lengthy exclusive on-camera interview with – News in the U.S. Capitol taped on Wednesday afternoon.
Asked about how House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he hopes to have the plan out of the U.S. House of Representatives by Memorial Day weekend, Thune said, “That’s right around the corner.”
But then when asked about how Bessent and the Treasury Department staff are angling for July 4 for the whole thing to be wrapped up, Thune said he thinks that is a reasonable target. Thune noted that the Senate’s procedures on these things are much more complicated that the House’s procedures, and that while he likes to “underpromise and over-deliver,” the Fourth of July is a reasonable date “We ought to target.”
“I think that’s what we certainly ought to target,” Thune said. “I think the House—they would like to, and the Speaker would like to have it out of the House by Memorial Day. The Senate has a more complicated procedure that we have to go through when it comes to reconciliation that makes it harder and more complicated. It takes a little bit longer time. But there’s been a ton of work done already and we’re working closely with our counterparts in the House on all of the relevant authorizing committees that have been instructed. But as you know, the objective in reconciliation is border security, it’s national security, it’s rebuilding the military. It’s tax relief, making that—extending that and making it permanent. It’s cutting spending. And it’s creating energy dominance for this country. Those are all agenda items the president campaigned on, the American people voted for, and we need to deliver on. But there are a lot of moving parts around it, so when you say they say they want it done by the Fourth of July I share that view and I’m certainly hopeful about that. But I’m also reluctant to—I always believe you underpromise and over-deliver. So as we look at what we have to get done, we want to be sure it gets done right. But I certainly think the Fourth of July—we have a work period right now. We’re out for a brief period over Memorial Day. Then we’re back in for four or five weeks straight. To me that seems like certainly something we ought to target.”
Part of the reason why the administration wants it done by July 4 is that day will kick off the beginning of the 250th year of the United States. It was 250 years ago, in 1776, when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Trump’s team is hoping, as only the president can do, sources familiar with the matter tell – News, to celebrate the day with great fanfare. Perhaps there would be no better way to do that than to sign a plan that most economists expect will surge economic growth and prosperity.
The reconciliation plan is expected to extend or make permanent Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rates and add in things like no tax on tips, Social Security income, or overtime wages. It’s also expected to have immigration funding and energy dominance funding as well. The reason why it takes so long in the Senate is the Republicans are using a procedure called budget reconciliation, a gimmick that allows them to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster without invoking the nuclear option of changing the U.S. Senate rules.
“A lot of it is the tax cuts from 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it’s extending it,” Thune said. “If we don’t extend it by the end of the year, it expires. That’s a $4 trillion tax increase that hits the American people, $2.6 trillion of which will fall on earners and working families making less than $400,000 a year and $600 billion of which will fall on small businesses…. So, avoiding that year-end tax increase is one big part of it, but as you point out the president has also suggested a number of other things including no tax on tips. So we are trying as we work through this to incorporate those elements that he has laid out that he wants to accomplish as part of his agenda in the tax piece of the bill. I think that will create a lot of economic certainty and particularly if we can make a lot of these provisions permanent. Sometimes when you pass these things you do it for six years or eight years or 10 years, but what I think the economy is looking for right now is signs that these are going to be the rules we’re going to live by for a while and yes we’re going to have bonus depreciation in here, and interest deductibility and R&D expensing, which are all stimulative to the economy and that help promote growth in our economy. So having those included and then having—I always tell people if you don’t extend the current tax policy you would take the child tax credit and cut it in half, you would take the standard deduction and cut it in half, because those are the things that we doubled back in 2017 when we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. So, it’s avoiding bad things happening to taxpayers in this country by extending the existing tax relief, but it’s also adding on top of that things like no taxes on tips, which the president campaigned vigorously on during the election.”
More from Thune’s latest exclusive interview with – News is forthcoming soon.
