by Benjamin Guggenheim

February 9, 2024

The top House and Senate tax writers had to "take a risk and move forward" with a bipartisan tax package in January without the signoff of Senate Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo, Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith told The Ripon Society earlier this week.

 

“We just got to the point that we had to move forward. And Senator Crapo wasn’t willing to go forward at that time,” Smith (R-Mo.) said in a speech the GOP policy group posted on its website. “And so, [Finance Chair Ron] Wyden and I had to, because time is of the essence to get this done. And I feel like that we have to take a risk and move forward. And that’s in fact what we did.”

 

Smith corroborated accounts, which were first reported by POLITICO on Thursday,that Crapo (R-Idaho) was closely involved in “four corners” negotiations over the tax package — which would expand the Child Tax Credit and revive a trio of business tax benefits — for months.

 

The negotiators — who also included Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) — indexed the CTC to inflation and lowered the cost of the credit from $47 billion to $30 billion specifically at the request of Crapo, Smith said.

 

He added that Crapo requested that the so-called look-back period — a feature of the credit that allows families to claim it using income from prior years — apply for only two out of three years of the family tax break expansion.

 

According to two aides involved in negotiations, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity to share details of private negotiations, Smith’s team approached Crapo about the look-back feature to ask how it could be made palatable for the ranking member.

 

Crapo then asked to take away the look-back for the 2023 tax year, with the feature remaining in place for 2024 and 2025 as is currently the case under the Wyden-Smith deal.

 

However, Amanda Critchfield, a spokesperson for Crapo, disputes that account of negotiations over the look-back period and pointed to a statement she provided earlier Friday to POLITICO: “Any narrative that Senator Crapo or his staff signed off on including the lookback provision is factually inaccurate — staff requested that it be removed entirely.”

 

Smith also spoke highly of Wyden, his chief counterpart in the negotiations, as a “constructive progressive.”

 

“Our backgrounds are totally different. Senator Wyden and myself — totally different people that we represent — but we found some common ground,” Smith said.

 

“When I took over chairman of the Ways and Means committee, by no means did anyone think that I was going to be Mr. Bipartisan. But we just delivered the largest win in Congress on a bipartisan fashion, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote,” Smith said.

 

The House passed the $78 billion tax package 357-70 last week.

 

SOURCE: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2024/02/we-had-to-take-a-risk-and-move-forward-on-tax-deal-without-senate-gop-tax-chief-smith-says-00140761

 

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The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.