Congress

Business tax incentives will grow, SALT will be cut, Crapo tells senators

Published

1 year ago

June 11, 2025

Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo told fellow Republicans in a Wednesday briefing that three major business tax provisions will be made permanent in the GOP’s megabill, senators who attended said, while a key break for individual taxpayers will be scaled back.

The pledge to restore larger tax deductions for research-and-development costs, business equipment purchases and interest on debt fulfills a major priority for Crapo and members of his panel, who consider them a major driver of economic growth.

But making the breaks permanent is costly, and it will require tradeoffs that could cause political problems as GOP leaders seek to finish work on the bill in the coming weeks. Crapo said one such move will be scaling back a House-brokered deal on the state-and-local-tax deduction.

GOP Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and John Hoeven of North Dakota, who have both pushed for the business tax cuts, confirmed Crapo’s remarks. “Yes, he did” guarantee business tax permanency, Hoeven said. “I’ve been adamant from the start, and he’s been adamant from the start.”

The House-passed version of the bill restores the trio of tax incentives through 2029; making them permanent would likely add hundreds of billions of red ink to the bill.

Permanency is mainly a Senate priority; President Donald Trump has signaled he’s fine with a short-term extension of the business tax cuts. To help offset the additional costs, Crapo is targeting a hot-potato House priority in the SALT deduction.

He told GOP senators he plans to cap SALT at a lower level than the $40,000 deal Speaker Mike Johnson cut with his own members. Blue-state GOP lawmakers are already raising warning bells over the plan, which Senate Majority Leader John Thune first outlined to POLITICO.

Crapo didn’t give a precise SALT number in the meeting, attendees said, but some GOP senators have floated going down to $20,000 while others are floating that they should offer the House the same $30,000 that Johnson initially offered to his holdout members.

“The House did $40,000; we’re going to do something less,” Hoeven said. “We know there’s a potential $350 billion there, but we haven’t settled on a number.”

The move on SALT is a blow to Johnson and other House Republicans who have urged Thune to make as few changes as possible to the House bill. While the Senate bill is likely to mirror large swaths of the House language, Crapo’s presentation is the most significant indication yet that the Senate will alter some of the most politically sensitive areas of the bill.

“I’m very, very concerned about what they might do on the SALT number and a number of provisions in the bill,” Johnson told reporters after the Senate meeting broke. “They need to hopefully modify it as little as possible.”

Responding to Crapo’s comments, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said, “I can guarantee you: any bill that passes here will have a SALT provision of $40,000 or more.” Rep. Nicole Malliotakois (R-N.Y.) warned Senate Republicans are “running the risk of this entire bill imploding” if they alter the House SALT deal, adding that “they will be responsible for the largest tax hike on the American people.”

Crapo and Thune will meet with Trump at the White House on Thursday to walk him through the tax plan, said two people granted anonymity to describe the private plans. Crapo is also expected to brief the Senate GOP in greater depth early next week.

In addition to the tax language, Crapo is responsible for drafting the bill’s Medicaid provisions, and he gave considerably less detail about what changes he is eyeing there, senators said. Many of the GOP senators who have concerns about the bill’s handling of the program are not on the Finance Committee.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is seeking to protect rural hospitals in her state, told reporters after the meeting she’s “making some suggestions” on Medicaid tweaks but did not elaborate. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota added that “some of the Medicaid stuff is going to have to be scrubbed” and suggested it would be subject to further changes.

Lisa Kashinsky and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate confirms Blanche as attorney general

Published

1 day ago

August 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Saturday confirmed Todd Blanche to be attorney general, following a weeks-long struggle with a handful of wary Republicans.

The Senate voted 50-49 to approve him, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining with Democrats in opposition.

Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi’s ouster in April. Questions about Blanche’s potential conflicts of interest from representing Trump, as well as his role in the creation of a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of Trump’s settlement this spring with the IRS, created headwinds to his confirmation among a key group of Senate Republicans.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who lost re-election after Trump endorsed a primary challenger, helped Blanche clinch his 50th vote Friday. He said Blanche wasn’t perfect but that he wasn’t sure Trump would pick someone better to lead the Justice Department.

“The choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

Cassidy’s support came after Blanche had already spent weeks negotiating with Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, who vetted his nomination as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cornyn struck an agreement with Blanche Sunday for the DOJ to curtail the payout fund and rein in a deal to exempt Trump from IRS audits.

Cassidy’s support came hours after Murkowski announced that she would oppose Blanche’s nomination, putting it on the brink of potential failure. Between unified opposition from Democrats and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence for health reasons, Blanche could only lose two Republicans and still be confirmed.

Hours before Friday’s vote, Murkowski told reporters she spoke with Blanche multiple times but that she was “good with where I am.” She said there was no “one” thing that motivated her decision.

“If there was one thing, we might be able to go back to the White House and say ‘Hey, can we work on this one thing,’” she said. “But for me it was a compilation.”

She added that she believed the anti-weaponization fund is “pretty dead” but “what is not so clear” are the audit immunity provisions of Trump’s IRS agreement, “which I just think are viewed by so many in this country as kind of a special and sweet deal for the president and his family.”

Congress

Senate passes funding bill to avert October shutdown

Published

1 day ago

August 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate passed a bill Saturday to fund the government beyond the midterm elections, putting the onus back on the House to head off a shutdown looming Oct. 1.

The Senate approved the measure in a bipartisan 90-6 vote, with Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina voting present. The bill would fund federal agencies through Dec. 11 at current levels, with some exceptions. Senate leaders sped up consideration of the legislation as part of an agreement reached Saturday morning to allow members to leave for August recess.

The House and Senate have now each passed different bills aimed at averting a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year. The House bill would fund the government through Dec. 4.

The Senate legislation sets up a year-end standoff over the Trump administration’s controversial plan to put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants. The bill would block the administration from finalizing that rule during the length of the stopgap — and lawmakers are already expecting a December brawl over the issue.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said this week that he’s going to “fight like hell” in December to ensure Congress doesn’t further obstruct the grant overhaul.

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are resistant to the White House approach to grants. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she will “continue to oppose” the Trump administration plans “because I think they politicize the grants process, and I don’t want that to occur.” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on Senate Appropriations, said she too would “welcome the fight.”

The Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) intended to ensure that a ban on intoxicating hemp products kicks in come November, after Senate leaders at the White House’s urging included language in the funding bill to delay it.

The Senate bill includes language Democrats sought to ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol don’t get any new funding under the patch. Republicans enacted $70 billion for those agencies along party lines earlier this year.

That prohibition could be contentious in the House.

Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) said in an interview that the provision “could be a dealbreaker” and that he’s “not a fan” of the Senate version. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) said Tuesday that he would say he’s undecided if GOP leadership whipped his vote on the Senate stopgap.

“I do not like the Senate language,” Van Drew said, noting the grant approval provision. “It’s one I would want to know what the president thinks.”

The White House issued a statement of administration policy in support of the Senate’s funding bill. No such memo was issued for the House bill, which did not include the funding increases and authorizations the White House requested.

“Every Member of Congress should support passage of this [continuing resolution] to keep the Government open as discussions on full year appropriations continue,” it reads.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democratic appropriator in the House, praised the Senate measure for including the grant and immigration enforcement language.

“This bill is a clear improvement over the House Republican continuing resolution, but we are still nearly two months away from the end of the fiscal year and should be working together to pass full-year funding bills,” she said in a statement.

Mia McCarthy and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate eyes the exit after GOP-Trump deal

Published

2 days ago

August 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate is aiming to leave Washington for a five-week recess early Saturday after Republicans cut a deal with President Donald Trump to punt some of their priorities, including a framework for a party-line spending plan.

The Senate is trying to lock in an agreement that would set up votes on a college sports bill, a stopgap government funding bill, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination and GOP voter ID legislation, according to a copy of an internal notice reviewed by Blue Light News.

The Senate would then leave Washington until mid-September.

Any one senator could object to the tentative deal, forcing it to be altered or dragging the Senate deeper into the weekend. Senators believe there are still objections to advancing the college sports bill. Democrats are also waiting to see if one of their own will prevent speeding up Blanche’s confirmation.

The breakthrough is a U-turn from earlier Friday evening, when Republican senators emerged from a closed-door meeting predicting they would have to spend Saturday trying to break a stalemate within the party about how to wrap final votes before recess.

Shortly after that meeting, Trump spoke by phone with Senate Republicans including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah about the path forward for the GOP’s lengthy to-do list.

During the call, according to Johnson, Trump agreed to punt a vote on a budget blueprint for a third party-line spending bill until later in the year. Lee, who has been pushing for action on the separate SAVE America Act, also agreed to drop his demand for a formal, roll call vote on adjourning given the understanding with the president.

“I think the conclusion of the conference – and we had a discussion with the president and he agrees – [is] don’t take the vote tonight,” Johnson said after the meeting in Thune’s office.

Republicans were in talks with the White House throughout Friday. A White House official granted anonymity said Friday evening that “we’re continuing to have productive conversations with senators to advance several legislative priorities.”