Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will attempt to expedite approval of changes to the popular Paycheck Protection Program aimed at giving small businesses more flexibility in using the money from the fund, according to Senate aides.

The measure, passed 208-199, would give cash-strapped states and local governments more than $1 trillion while providing most Americans with a new round of $1,200 checks

Republicans universally rejected a $3 trillion stimulus measure drafted by House Democrats to bolster the U.S. economy, but the draft plan has the seeds for an eventual, smaller compromise.

House Democrats proposed a $3 trillion virus relief bill Tuesday, combining aid to state and local governments with direct cash payments, tax breaks, expanded unemployment insurance and food stamp spending as well as a list of progressive priorities like funds for voting by mail and the troubled U.S. Postal Service.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed President Donald Trump’s call for a payroll tax cut and changes in the capital gains tax, saying it wouldn’t help millions of unemployed workers and others struggling in an economy shut down by the pandemic.

A centerpiece of the package is tax rebates to individuals of $1,200 and $2,400 for married couples. Rebates are completely phased-out for taxpayers with incomes exceeding $99,000 for individuals or $198,000 for a couple.

Democrats are staging a long-shot attempt to chip away at the Republican tax law’s limit on state and local tax deductions, finding few GOP allies despite potential benefit for Republican-led states.

The legislation would gradually raise the minimum wage by 2025 from its current level of $7.25 but is unlikely to advance in the Senate.

A trio of Republican senators has reintroduced legislation to get rid of estate taxes completely.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s new top economic policy aide has a complicated checklist: oversee implementation of the new tax law and mitigate the damage of impending trade disputes.

House Republicans unveiled a broad outline on Tuesday for their next phase of tax code changes, which steered clear of correcting technical mistakes from last year’s overhaul.

Republicans are promising Tax Reform 2.0, but only a few measures may get approved.

The House Ways and Means chairman hopes to begin circulating draft legislation this summer, but only among his Republican colleagues. He envisions tax reform 2.0 as a package of three or four bills, instead of a single piece of legislation like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Congress passed last December.

The U.S. House has approved a sweeping overhaul of bank regulations, sending to President Donald Trump a bill that will give him a chance to make good on his vow to "do a big number" on the Dodd-Frank Act.

Republicans are showing little appetite for big action in what may be their last months in full control of Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers are on the cusp of settling on a $1.3 trillion bill to avoid a government shutdown this weekend after reaching compromises on a fix to the tax law and other issues.

Talks continued on issues like a fix to the new tax law with just days remaining for House and Senate votes to avert a third shutdown this year.

President Donald Trump signed a two-year budget agreement that will boost federal spending by almost $300 billion and suspend the debt ceiling for a year, ending a brief partial government shutdown that began at midnight when lawmakers missed a funding deadline.

GOP leaders in the House are testing whether rank-and-file Republicans will support a stopgap funding measure to keep the government open that also would delay some Obamacare taxes and provide money for a children’s health insurance program, lawmakers said.

Shortly before passing a far-reaching but unpopular bill on a party line vote, the Speaker of the House assured critics that people would like it once they felt its benefits.