The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to meet this morning at 8am to discuss a proposed committee substitute (PCS) to H998 – a rewrite of the House’s version of the tax reform plan.  The motion to discuss the PCS is a normal procedure in committee, one with usually no pushback from members, today proved a different situation.  The voice vote was clearly against the motion, yet the chair stated it has passed.  This caused members to request a roll-call vote where the motion failed 44 no to 34 ayes.  The entire meeting lasted 7 minutes and 45 seconds and obviously did not go according to the committee chair’s plans.  Many Republicans sided with Democrats on the vote.  See the video below.

Approps Committee

What caused the commotion?  Representative Howard very sternly said, “Mr. Chair, I object to the PCS before you.  This is not the bill that came out of finance.”  What were the changes that made this bill not the same as the bill in the finance committee?  The House Finance Committee was held at 8:30 am yesterday morning, where the bill was amended and received a favorable report.  One of the amendments changed a section dealing with deductions, sponsored by Representative Howard.

Specifically, the rewritten H998 changed a small part of the 20-page bill, but this small part makes a large impact on the overall bill.  Itemized deductions were changed to put a cap on mortgage interest, charitable donations and local taxes back into the bill.

Bill that Passed Finance Yesterday

New Bill that was voted down Today
The itemized deduction amount allowed under this subsection in the sum of the following:

  1. The amount claimed by the taxpayer as a deduction for interest paid or accrued during the taxable year under section 163(h) of the Code with respect to any qualified residence.
  2. The amount claimed by the taxpayer for charitable contributions deductible under section 170 of the Code for that taxable year.
  3. The amount claimed by the taxpayer under the Code for State and local property taxes paid on real estate for that taxable year.
 The itemized deductions amount allowed under this subsection may not exceed the amount listed in the table below based on the taxpayers filing status.

Filing Status Max Itemized Deduction
Married, filing jointly

Head of Household

Single

Married, filing separately

 $25,000

$20,000

$12,500

$12,500

 

WRAL reports on the committee hearing here with comments from lawmakers on this morning’s committee meeting.