The Senate Finance Committee on Monday unveiled its portion of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” containing provisions on Medicaid, taxes and inexperienced power tax credit.
The committee’s textual content is the ultimate piece of the higher chamber’s model of the invoice to be launched, and was probably the most extremely anticipated. It accommodates among the thorniest provisions that Senate GOP holdouts have expressed issues about, and the problems that would set the higher chamber on a collision course with the Home.
The Home narrowly handed its model of the laws final month. Right here’s what’s within the Senate’s invoice.
2017 tax cuts
The invoice makes lots of the core components of their 2017 tax cuts everlasting however scales again further cuts from what the Home handed.
The Senate invoice locks in present federal tax brackets, boosts the usual deduction and maintains the termination of non-public exemptions — all with out sunsets.
In distinction with the Home model, the invoice units a decrease enhance for the kid tax credit score, elevating it to $2,200 per baby versus the Home’s $2,500.
Taxes on ideas
The invoice creates new deductions for taxes on ideas, additional time pay and automotive mortgage curiosity — a precedence of Trump’s that he campaigned on — however doesn’t make them absolutely deductible.
Ideas are deductible as much as $25,000 by 2028. Time beyond regulation pay is deductible as much as $12,500, or $25,000 for joint filers, by 2028. Auto mortgage curiosity is deductible as much as $10,000, additionally by 2028.
Medicaid funding
Senate Republicans are taking an even bigger swing at Medicaid of their model of the invoice.
The laws would successfully cap supplier taxes at 3.5 p.c by 2031, down from the present 6 p.c, however just for the states that expanded Medicaid beneath the Reasonably priced Care Act. The cap can be phased in by decreasing it 0.5 p.c yearly, beginning in 2027.
Non-expansion states can be prohibited from imposing new taxes, however as was true within the Home-passed model, their charges can be frozen at present ranges. The decrease cap wouldn’t apply to nursing properties or intermediate care amenities.
Limiting supplier taxes is a long-held conservative purpose, as they argue states are gaming the present system and driving up federal Medicaid spending. The insurance policies are designed to inflate Medicaid spending on paper to permit states to obtain extra federal reimbursement {dollars}.
The Senate invoice additionally cuts sure present state-directed funds to hospitals, which might be a major hit to the hospitals’ backside line. The Home model in distinction restricted future funds however grandfathered present preparations.
The change within the Senate invoice is certain to anger Republicans who have been already expressing issues concerning the affect of the freeze within the Home-passed model, together with key holdouts like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). Supplier taxes have change into an vital lifeline for hospitals, and rural hospitals can be hit hardest by the cuts.
Hawley on Monday evening signaled dissatisfaction with the newly unveiled textual content.
Medicaid eligibility
Just like the Home invoice, the Senate laws imposes work necessities on Medicaid beneficiaries starting at 19 years previous.
However the Senate model says adults with dependent kids older than 14 may even should show they work, attend college or carry out neighborhood service for 80 hours a month, whereas the Home-passed model would exempt all adults with dependent kids.
Inexperienced power tax credit
The invoice consists of adjustments to inexperienced power tax credit which can be extra versatile than these handed by the Home — however would nonetheless be a major rollback.
The Senate textual content seems to eradicate probably the most stringent provision within the Home invoice, deleting a measure that will have required climate-friendly power sources to begin development inside 60 days of the invoice’s enactment to qualify for the credit in any respect.
As an alternative, issues corresponding to photo voltaic panels and wind farms would want to start development this yr with a view to obtain the complete credit score quantity.
Tasks that start development in 2026 would get 60 p.c of the credit score, whereas tasks that start development in 2027 would obtain 20 p.c. Tasks constructed in 2028 or later wouldn’t be eligible for the credit score.
This, too, seems to be extra versatile than the Home textual content, which required tasks to not simply begin development however really be producing electrical energy by the top of 2028 to qualify for the credit score.
However, the Senate provisions are nonetheless a serious rollback of the tax credit handed by Democrats of their 2022 Inflation Discount Act. Beneath that legislation, the credit would have lasted till both 2032 or when U.S. emissions from the electrical sector are 25 p.c decrease than their 2022 ranges, whichever got here later.
The Senate textual content additionally provides carve-outs for hydro, nuclear and geothermal energy, permitting them to obtain the complete credit score if they start development earlier than 2034.
SALT
The Senate invoice as drafted would hold the cap on state and native tax (SALT) deductions at $10,000 a yr, rolling again the deal that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) painstakingly reduce with blue state Republicans to lift the restrict on SALT deductions to $40,000 a yr for households incomes lower than $500,000 yearly.
It might completely prolong the $10,000 cap, which is scheduled to run out on the finish of this yr.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) advised reporters Monday afternoon that the $10,000 deduction cap is a “marker” for talks with Home Republicans, and that they are going to discover a quantity within the center that satisfies each camps.
However the Home’s SALT Caucus Republicans are insisting on the $40,000 quantity.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), a key member of the group, wrote on the social platform X that the proposal was “DEAD ON ARRIVAL” and warned in an announcement {that a} $40,000 deduction cap “is the deal and I will not accept a penny less.”
Debt ceiling
The invoice would increase the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, as a substitute of the $4 trillion enhance adopted by Home Republicans.
The debt-ceiling language is a serious drawback for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has advised his management he received’t assist the invoice if it consists of such a big extension of federal borrowing authority.
Mychael Schnell and Al Weaver contributed.
