The Trump administration is opting against releasing its own tax reform blueprint in September, instead allowing the congressional tax-writing committees to craft the working draft expected to be released in September.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Cohn, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch — dubbed the Big Six — have been working to iron out the specifics of the plan for months in hopes of crafting a bill all factions of the party can support.
President Donald Trump is expected to play a vital role in Republican’s messaging efforts to gain support for overhauling the tax code.
Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn confirmed the president will kick off his campaign for tax reform in Missouri Wednesday during an interview with The Financial Times.
“Starting next week, the president’s agenda and calendar is going to revolve around tax reform,” Cohn told the publication. “He will start being on the road making major addresses justifying the reasoning for tax reform and why we need it in the U.S.”
The push comes just ahead of lawmakers return to Washington after their August recess. Congressional Republicans are bracing themselves to floor the gas on tax reform with hopes of passing a bill this year.
Republicans are looking to avoid the divide that led to the impasse during their attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The House Committee on Ways and Means is expected to roll out its plan by the end of September, Axios first reported.
“Let me just say that as I said before, our objective here is to have one plan that includes the administration, the House and the Senate to work very closely together. They have been working nonstop,” Mnuchin said at the White House press briefing Thursday. “We put out a statement on that. We will continue to put more details on that, and but I think it is very important that both committees and the Senate and the House have the ability to debate this and review it.”
Ryan stressed the importance of getting a tax reform bill passed in 2017, noting it’s a key component for their plans to get 3 percent economic growth in 2018 during an employee town hall at Boeing factory in Everett, Wash., Thursday.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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