Congress

Mar-a-Lago meetings to include an offer on SALT cap

Published

1 year ago

January 8, 2025

The incoming Trump administration plans to offer an expansion of the state and local tax deduction to Republican lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California who are heading to Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for a sit-down with the president-elect.

While exact details weren’t available, one proposal being discussed would allow married couples to deduct $20,000 of their state and local taxes from their federal income taxes. Under current law, married couples can deduct only $10,000, which is the same for single taxpayers.

In return, the so-called SALT Republicans will be expected to fall in line behind a sweeping tax bill the GOP hopes to enact later this year, two sources familiar with the new administration’s thinking told Blue Light News, who were granted anonymity to discuss the internal strategizing.

The lawmakers — who represent politically competitive, high-tax districts where constituents have been dinged by the SALT cap — haven’t ruled out pushing for other changes, though.

The talks will be just one part of a broader set of discussions President-elect Donald Trump plans to hold in Florida this weekend that will also include members of the House Freedom Caucus and the chairs of important House committees.

However, the outcome of the conversations with SALT Republicans promises to be particularly important for the GOP’s plans to pass an extension of expiring provisions of the tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first administration.

Members of the coalition stalled tax legislation in the 118th Congress several times over their demands for SALT relief, which is otherwise widely unpopular in the Republican conference. And, in the GOP’s slim two-seat majority, the group now wields tremendous leverage again — and House leadership knows it.

The issue “will definitely come up. I think that’s a big sticking point for the members that will be there,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), who is part of the SALT caucus and also a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Malliotakis said that New York Republicans would be meeting on Wednesday to go over their strategy ahead of the meetings in Florida.

“We’re going to go over the impact SALT has had in each of our districts, how many people take SALT versus the standard deduction, what are the income levels that are affected,” said Malliotakis.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) confirmed to Blue Light News on Tuesday that he would also be part of the group of lawmakers making the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago.

We’re going to “have broad discussions but obviously SALT will be part of it,” Lawler said.

It’s possible that the group will push for something more than doubling the deduction for married couples, which the lawmakers call a “marriage penalty.” The New Yorkers are quick to point out that Trump himself pledged at a campaign rally in Long Island to expand SALT relief — and that the blue districts they represent are some of the most competitive in the country.

Former New York Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro, who lost his reelection last year, told Blue Light News in December that voters might have returned him to Congress if Republicans had achieved something on SALT.

“I think the logical way to do it is to, at a minimum, double it and get rid of the marriage penalty elements of it,” said Molinaro. “What I would say is that’s the floor, I think, from a constituent’s perspective, from a voter’s perspective.”

Malliotakis said that changes in the alternative minimum taxes for upper-income taxpayers, which would further erode the value of the SALT deduction and were repealed in 2017, “cannot come back.”

“That’s a red line for me,” she said.

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who will lead the charge on tax policies this year, has acknowledged Trump’s desire to address the SALT cap. Yet, Smith has also asserted that Republicans cannot fully repeal the limit, which they put in place in 2017 to help pay for their Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.

The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated in 2021 that a full repeal of the cap would cost $900 billion.

“That’s how [Trump] does things differently,” Smith told Blue Light News, referring to the meetings scheduled for Mar-a-Lago. “He’s going to have all the committee chairmen down there on Saturday, too, the Freedom Caucus, so being there to listen to him.”

Congress

Absent congressmember Tom Kean Jr. starts working the phone

Published

2 days ago

May 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Tom Kean Jr., whose two-and-a-half month disappearance has stoked speculation about his health and political future, has begun more actively communicating over the phone.

On Thursday, Kean began calling Republican county chairs in his 7th Congressional District, one of the most competitive in the country in this year’s midterms. The two-term Republican also gave a “lengthy” interview to New Jersey Globe on Thursday afternoon, the first he has granted since he last voted on March 5.

Kean did not respond to a text message from Blue Light News and his voicemail was full Thursday night.

But Kean, 57, gave no details to the Globe on his undisclosed illness, which has kept him out of public view since early March. He said he’s expecting to make a full recovery, that it would not affect his cognitive health, that he plans to run for reelection and that he will publicly discuss his health at an unspecified later date.

“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean told New Jersey Globe. “I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents.”

Kean added that he plans to return to voting and campaigning in the next couple weeks. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told reporters Thursday he spoke to Kean and he will be back voting in June.

Kean’s lengthy absence has drawn national media attention, with reporters staking out his home in the wealthy 7th Congressional District, where he faces an extremely competitive reelection, with four Democrats competing in the June 2 primary to take him on in November. His campaign and office staff had repeatedly said that he expects to make a full recovery and would return to work “soon.”

But few people — even Kean’s two fellow New Jersey House Republicans — had recently reported speaking to him. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he spoke to Kean last month.

Kean called Republican chairs in his district on Thursday.

“He sounded good to me. Sounded just as normal as always,” said Carlos Santos, the Republican chair of Union County, where Kean lives.

Santos said that he did not ask Kean about his ailment, and that Kean did not disclose it. But he said Kean confirmed he’s running for reelection and that he has his support.

Tracy DiFrancesco, the GOP chair of Somerset County, also spoke with Kean.

“It was just a simple conversation. He sounded just like Tom always sounds. He sounded perfectly fine. He’s basically back. Hopefully we’re going to see him very soon,” she said. “I think he’s doing well and we’re excited to get back on his campaign.”

Congress

Tom Kean to return?

Published

2 days ago

May 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told reporters Thursday he spoke to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and he will be back voting in June.

Kean, a New Jersey Republican, has been missing from Capitol Hill since March 5 without explanation. Hudson, of North Carolina, said in an interview just a few days ago he hadn’t spoken to Kean in a while and only heard from Kean’s team that he could run for reelection.

Congress

House rejects Smithsonian women’s history museum bill after partisan split

Published

2 days ago

May 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House rejected legislation Thursday to advance construction of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum after a partisan battle broke out in recent days over the long-sought building.

Lawmakers voted 216-204 to reject the legislation led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). Six Republican hard-liners joined all Democrats in opposition.

While 127 Democrats cosponsored an earlier version of the bill, most of them bailed after Republicans altered it ahead of the floor vote.

New language added in the House Administration Committee last month dedicated the museum to “preserving, researching, and presenting the history, achievements, and lived experiences of biological women in the United States” and prohibited the institution from seeking to “identify, present, describe, or otherwise depict any biological male as a female.”

Other new provisions called for “an equal representation of the diversity of the political viewpoints and authentic experiences held by women in the United States” and gave President Donald Trump the unilateral power to relocate the museum from sites already identified on the National Mall.

The Democratic Women’s Caucus announced earlier this week it would oppose the altered bill after working on it with Republicans for years.

“They amended the bill to give Trump and his allies unregulated power over what content and which women can be included in the museum, and the museum’s location,” Democratic Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández (N.M.), Hillary Scholten (Mich.) and Emilia Sykes (Ohio) said in a statement. “A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man.”

Republicans also dealt with their own internal fights over the legislation this week. Several GOP lawmakers raised concerns in House Republicans’ closed door meeting Wednesday morning about why the museum was needed.

They also argued it would further divide Americans into groups when there are already women represented across the wider collection of Smithsonian museums, according to five people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private discussion.