This story has been updated to reflect the reasons the bill failed to meet Senate requirements.
The House of Representatives voted today 227-202, with every Democrat opposing, for the thing Republicans have been salivating over for decades: massive tax cuts for the wealthiest at the expense of middle class Americans and working families. The plan was to pass the bill through the Senate and celebrate President Trump’s only first year legislative victory into the wee hours of the morning.
Now, it looks like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) will have to put the champagne back on ice.
After the vote, Democrats noted that the bill violated Senate rules for three different reasons, the Associated Press reports:
BREAKING: Democrats say 3 provisions in GOP tax bill violate Senate rules and will be removed, forcing House to revote Wednesday.
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 19, 2017
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The three provisions violate the Byrd Rule, which mandate that legislation passed by the House must:
- do not produce a change in outlays or revenues;
- produce changes in outlays or revenue which are merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision;
- are outside the jurisdiction of the committee that submitted the title or provision for inclusion in the reconciliation measure;
- increase outlays or decrease revenue if the provision’s title, as a whole, fails to achieve the Senate reporting committee’s reconciliation instructions;
- increase net outlays or decrease revenue during a fiscal year after the years covered by the reconciliation bill unless the provision’s title, as a whole, remains budget neutral;
- contain recommendations regarding the OASDI (social security) trust funds.
The Senate parliamentarian ruled that an Amendment from Senator Tex Cruz (R-TX) allowing education savings plans to be used for homeschool expenses, a mechanism for determining university endowment taxes, and the title of the bill, “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” failed to meet those requirements
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This means, Americans who will be hurt by this bill — the vast majority of us — have one more chance to stop this monstrosity.
Both chambers are planning to vote on the bill again tomorrow, and you know what that means. Contact your Members of Congress at 202.224.3121 immediately and demand that they vote down the Republican tax scam.
Tell them if they don’t, you’ll be voting them out soon enough.
We can still stop this thing. Truly, Republicans do not seem to be able to do anything right:
This is now the politics version of that Nick Young brick GIF pic.twitter.com/ipxmUKGvyU
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) December 19, 2017
