House Republicans moved closer to completing action this week on a reconciliation plan to implement President Trump’s “one, big, beautiful” agenda bill. The final three committees completed action on their portion of the package to renew the 2017 tax cut legislation with some additional tax cuts and to cut roughly $1.5 trillion in spending over the next decade to pay for the tax provisions and reduce overall federal spending. Congress has few legislative days scheduled until the Memorial Day recess, which is Speaker Mike Johnson’s deadline to push the reconciliation package through the House to get the package on Trump’s desk by July 4. The House Budget Committee consolidate the work of the various committees into one package and bring it up for a vote next week. As of right now, Speaker Johnson does not have the votes to pass this big chunk of Trump domestic agenda. It is anticipated changes to this legislation will have to be made in the Rules Committee or on the floor to ensure its passage.
The Energy and Commerce committee’s proposal cuts $715 billion from Medicaid over a 10-year period and calls for eliminating climate change initiatives in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, rolling back other so-called “green energy” projects and clawing back unspent funds on loans and grants.
Action on the tax portion of the legislation by the Ways and Means Committee extends many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and repeals or phases out IRA credits like the clean hydrogen and clean electricity investment credits. The package increases the deduction for passthrough business income from 20% to 23% to help keep small business tax rates in line with corporate rates. The bill also extends the 100% corporate bonus depreciation related to capital investments, allows expensing for corporate research and development costs and permits companies to use more favorable calculations of interest expenses deductions. The package also increases the estate tax exemption to $15 million per person. The bill also extends tax credits for clean fuel producers through 2031.
The Agriculture committee’s portion of the legislation would bring Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding at the farm bill baseline and provide flexibility by removing requirements that limited the funding to climate-smart practices. Funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program would rise from $2.66 billion in fiscal 2026 to $3.26 billion in fiscal 2031. Funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program would go from $1.3 billion in FY26 to $1.38 billion in FY31.