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July 20, 2015

Senate Finance Chairman Committed To Passing Tax Extenders Package Well Before Deadline

With the prospect of federal tax reform all but dead for 2015, U.S. Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has turned his attention to passing a package of expiring tax provisions. According to Congressional Quarterly (subscription required), Chairman Hatch is working to get a bill together that would extend more than 50 credits and deductions well before they expire at the end of this calendar year and is hopeful his committee will vote on the bill before lawmakers go home for the summer recess in August. (A committee hearing on the legislation is set for July 21.) 

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who is reportedly working with Chairman Hatch to craft the package, said committee members may even try to attach their bill to a short-term extension of highway programs that Congress must tackle before July 31. 

Congressional Quarterly said, “Hatch’s decision to consider a pre-recess markup mirrors a broader Senate GOP strategy for trying to expedite final action on priority bills before an anticipated showdown this fall on fiscal 2016 spending bills and an extension of the government's statutory borrowing limit.” U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), however, told Congressional Quarterly his committee would wait until after the August recess to discuss the expiring provisions. 

House lawmakers are reportedly considering increasing the ceilings for small business expensing, bonus depreciation and the research and development credit as part of their package and may also attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act medical device tax during debate on the extenders bill. 

Read more about the importance of the tax extenders legislation in this letter to U.S. lawmakers from the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

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