Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Representative Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) introduced the Main Street Tax Certainty Act in the House and Senate, which would make the 20-percent Section 199A qualified small business income deduction permanent.
Recently confirmed USDOT Secretary Duffy shared President Trump’s transportation infrastructure vision this week with state highway officials. “He wants me to help you build more, build faster, build better, and probably more beautifully as well,” Duffy noted. “So that is the mission we want and we’ve got to partner together to figure that out. So I do want to build more but I want to build more with less money and I want us to build in a shorter period of time.”
The President’s selected Brooke Rollins, a long-time policy supporter of his who may lack agriculture experience unlike past Secretaries of Agriculture but her access to the President should be a real plus in helping shape and get the President to sign off on the final bill.
While the Senate has responsibility for Cabinet member approval, the focus on the House will be to quickly develop a farm bill. Here is what the House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) told his committee at their first organizational meeting this week.
Reports yesterday outlined broad areas of discussions on where federal cuts may come from.
The House Agriculture Committee is targeting between $100 billion and $250 billion in cuts. Some would impact SNAP, aka food stamps. Mandating states pay more for SNAP benefits with a cost-share requirement, changing the Thrifty Food Plan process and expanding work requirements were among the options. Democrats are already panning proposals to cut spending on social safety net programs to pay for tax cuts.
Industry groups are lining up to give their support for congressional action on the farm bill. Here is what the Farm Bureau messaged to Congress this week.
What a great way to start the New Year with a visit to Ohio LICA to participate in their Annual Convention. As the political transition occurs in Washington, I shared my thinking about how key LICA markets – agriculture, construction and tax – will transition and be considered by the New Congress and Administration.
President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t much care how Congress passes his legislative agenda. But he has decided that the best way forward is to play to the lowest common denominator — House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson. This and more according to PunchBowl News.
Construction contractors are optimistic about certain private-sector segments and have high hopes for most types of public-sector work, according to survey results the Associated General Contractors of America and Sage released today. Yet they have very low expectations for several private-sector market segments, remain concerned about labor shortages and are worried materials prices will climb amid threats of new tariffs.