How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted
Here is how Arkansas’ U.S. senators and U.S. representatives voted on major roll call votes during the week that ended Friday.
HOUSE
Republican tax overhaul. Approved 227-203, the conference report on a GOP-drafted bill (HR1) that would permanently reduce the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent; temporarily lower personal income taxes for most Americans; permanently cut the inheritance tax; open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling; repeal the 2010 health law’s individual mandate; and make numerous other changes to the tax code and domestic programs, many of them not yet publicly identified in the nearly 500-page measure.
The bill would reduce business and personal taxes by about $1.5 trillion through fiscal 2027 and add at least $1 trillion to the $20.6 trillion national debt over 10 years, according to official projections. Because the bill triggers a payas-you-go rule, it is likely to require cuts over time in safety-net programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, according to the Congressional Budget Office. A one-year, $25 billion Medicare spending cut is factored into the bill.
The bill would allow a $10,000 deduction for various combinations of state and local income taxes, property taxes and in some cases sales taxes. This would replace provisions in current law that allow most if not all non-federal income taxes and property taxes to be deducted on federal returns. Under the bill, the $4,050 personal exemption would be ended and the standard deduction permanently doubled to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for joint filers, while the child tax credit would be increased from $1,000 to $2,000 and made refundable for low-income families. Exemptions from the estate tax would be permanently doubled to $11 million for individuals and $22 million for couples, leaving fewer than 2,000 Americans subject to the federal tax on inherited wealth.
The bill reduces the top personal tax rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent while specifying seven brackets with rates of 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35 and 37 percent. The bottom bracket applies to incomes under $19,050 and the top one to single incomes over $500,000 and joint incomes over $600,000. Most households earning less than $75,000 would face higher tax bills starting in 2027 than they have under current law, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. By requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate helps spread health care costs throughout the population. Its repeal in 2019 under this bill is projected to add 13 million individuals to uninsured rolls by 2027 and immediately trigger increases in health insurance premiums. The bill ends the Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations but retains it for single incomes over $500,000 and joint incomes over $1 million. The purpose of the Alternative Minimum Tax is to prevent affluent filers from using loopholes to avoid federal income taxes.
Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said: “The proof of these policies will come over the next year, and every American will be able to decide for themselves if they are better off because of it. I am now highly confident their answer is going to be a resounding ‘yes.’”
Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said: “Republicans always promise that the benefits will trickle down to working people, but they never do and they never will. What is worse, Republicans have made it clear that cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are next” to pay for the tax cuts.
A yes vote was to approve the conference report.
Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)
Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)
$81 billion for hurricane,
wildfire relief. Passed 251-169, a bill (HR4667) that would appropriate $81 billion to fund recovery from Hurricanes Maria, Harvey and Irma and this year’s wildfires in California. Because this is emergency spending not offset elsewhere in the budget, it would be added to federal deficits. The bill provides $28 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-relief fund; $26 billion in grants to communities; $12 billion for infrastructure projects; and hundreds of millions for loan programs and wildfire recovery.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Four weeks’ stopgap
funding. Passed 231-188, a bill (HR1370) that would fund the government on a stopgap basis through Jan. 19, giving lawmakers more time to negotiate issues such as renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for “dreamers” and the lifting of domestic as well as military spending caps on fiscal 2018 appropriations. The bill also would temporarily extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program and fund community health centers.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
SENATE
Republican tax overhaul. Passed 51-48, the conference report on a GOP bill (HR1). The bill includes these provisions in addition to ones noted above:
For owners of pass-through entities such as S corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies — whose income is taxed at personal rather than corporate rates — the bill allows 20 percent of earnings to be deducted from taxable income. In addition to helping owners of small businesses with payrolls, the pass-through provision will yield tax major savings to developers with large holdings of depreciable real estate and investors in real estate instruments.
The bill would impose a 1.4 percent excise tax on the earnings of college and university endowments valued at $500,000 or more per enrolled student, affecting about 30 institutions. The bill expands socalled 529 college savings plans to allow tax-free withdrawals of up to $10,000 per child per year for paying expenses at religious and private K-12 schools. In addition, the bill permits balances from 529 education accounts to be rolled over to so-called ABLE accounts that allow tax-free withdrawals for expenses for caring for people with disabilities.
Alimony payments starting in 2019 can no longer be claimed as a deductible expense, and recipients of alimony will no longer have to pay taxes on the payments they receive.
The bill reduces from $1 million to $750,000 the cap on mortgage debt for which taxpayers can deduct interest payments and ends deductions for interest paid on home-equity loans.
For 2017 and 2018 tax returns, the bill allows medical expenses above 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to be deducted from taxable income, compared with the current 10 percent threshold. The threshold will revert to 10 percent in 2019 and later years.
The bill allows deductions for losses attributable to floods, fires and other catastrophes only if the event is a presidentially declared natural disaster, and it extends rules that allow per-event losses topping $100 to be deducted only if collective losses from disasters total at least 10 percent of adjusted gross income.
In addition, the bill suspends through 2025 the deductibility of fees that high-end filers pay to investment advisers; tightens rules for converting individual retirement accounts to Roth IRAs; ends the deductibility of most moving expenses; exempts forgiven student debt from taxation in the event of permanent disability or death; ends the deductibility of tax-preparation expenses including accountants’ bills and outlays for software; ends deductions for costs associated with riding a bicycle to work; and tightens rules for deducting gambling losses.
The bill replaces the Consumer Price Index as a measurement for adjusting tax brackets for inflation, instead using the less generous “chained CPI” for protecting earners against the bracket creep that results when incomes rise because of inflation.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said: “Every income group will experience a tax cut, with the largest percentage tax cuts going to the middle-income groups. Moreover, the bill would make the tax code more progressive, with taxpayers earning more than $1 million shouldering a larger share of the tax burden than they do under current law.”
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the bill’s real estate pass-through provision “will directly benefit the president and some members of Congress. It doesn’t end there. Republicans have yet to address the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare, Social Security and other programs vital to the American people which will be spurred by the passage of this bill.” A yes vote was to adopt the conference report.
John Boozman (R)
Tom Cotton (R)
Four weeks’ stopgap funding.
Passed 66-32, a bill (HR1370) that would fund the government on a stopgap basis through Jan. 19, averting a partial government shutdown set to occur several hours later at midnight.
A yes vote was to send the bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)