Capitol Hill tax staff haven't ruled out an end-of-year bipartisan tax package to adjust retirement fixes and international tax issues that have gone unaddressed—even as Republican lawmakers race against the clock to pass a "skinny" reconciliation package.
Ji Prichard, tax counsel for House Ways and Means Committee Democrats, said there was appetite for a bipartisan bill that builds on previous efforts like the 2022 SECURE 2.0 retirement law, which included a saver's match and changes to the Thrift Savings Plan.
Prichard appeared alongside tax staff representing all four corners of Senate Finance and Ways and Means committee leadership Thursday at an insurance tax seminar hosted by the Federal Bar Association.
The panel noted that the House-passed Taiwan tax bill, which has bipartisan support but has languished in the Senate, could be a legislative priority around which both parties could coalesce.
While bipartisanship is possible, Republicans haven't ruled out taking a third swing at budget reconciliation, a process that allows them to fast-track spending legislation with a simple majority. There's also interest from Republicans on international tax issues as the party seeks a united response to the global minimum tax on multinational corporations enacted by countries around the world, staff said.
"I also think it's important that we're able to cooperate with this Pillar Two experiment and work together on that, while keeping our economy and independence so we can continue to be an innovator and a leader in world tax," said Larry Pounders, tax counsel for Ways and Means Republicans.
There are significant hurdles, to be sure.
First, Republicans must salvage efforts to go around Democrats and pass funding for border and immigration enforcement through the expedited reconciliation process. That momentum was stymied before recess by Senate concerns about President Donald Trump's ballroom funding proposal and $1.8 billion fund the administration wants to use to compensate people claiming to be politically targeted by previous administrations.
House leadership has huddled for weeks to try to cobble together a third policy package that could clear the narrow majority, but finding consensus and passing it as the current legislative calendar gets short could prove difficult.
"Getting three done kind of feels like trying to catch lightning in a bottle, but it could certainly happen," Pounders said.
