Washington’s attention in the last 48 hours has been focused on the growing nuclear threat from North Korea and President Trump’s call for Congress to deal with immigration reform before the legal protections for “Dreamers” – young people brought to this country illegally by their parents – ends in six months.
But there are other issues percolating in Official Washington, including tax reform.
Thus far, a coalition promoting the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2017has signed 253 sponsors in the House and 47 in the Senate. That’s enough to obtain passage in the House, but not enough for passage in the Senate.
So the coalition is working to increase the sponsor numbers for the bill. “The more sponsors we have the better we feel about having our bill including in some kind of package this Fall. It is unclear what that might look like, but right now we are focused on increasing those co-sponsor levels on the bill. We are close to a majority in the Senate and have a clear majority in the House,” says Michael Kaiser, vp, WineAmerica.
Katie Marisic, federal affairs manager at the Brewers Association, noted that the bill is too small to be passed as a standalone measure. It needs to be incorporated into a larger bill, most likely comprehensive tax reform.
And, with Republicans in control of the White House, House and Senate, and proclaiming in July that “We are all united in the belief that the single most important action we can take to grow our economy and help the middle class get ahead is to fix our broken tax code for families, small business, and American job creators competing at home and around the globe.
“Our shared commitment to fixing America’s broken tax code represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and so for three months we have been meeting regularly to develop a shared template for tax reform.”
The problem is, Congress has tried many times over the past 30 years to pass comprehensive tax reform. “But it’s sweeps season in Washington, and it looks like all the stars might have finally aligned.” It would help, Marisic says, for industry members to contact their legislators to urge support.