Congressional roll call

Here’s how area members of Congress voted on major issues during the week ending Dec. 22.

HOUSE

TAX OVERHAUL: Voting 227-203, the House on Dec. 19 adopted the conference report on a GOP-drafted bill (HR 1) 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 pay-as-yougo 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 lowincome 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 do under current law, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. By requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate helps spread healthcare 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 AMT is to prevent affluent filers from using loopholes to avoid federal income taxes. A yes vote was to approve the conference report.

John Faso, R-Kinderhook:

No

Sean Maloney, D-Cold Spring: No HURRICANE, WILDFIRE

RELIEF: Voting 251-169, the House on Dec. 22 passed a bill (HR 4667) 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. Faso: Yes

Maloney: No STOPGAP FUNDING: Voting 231-188, the House on Dec. 22 adopted a bill (HR 1370) 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. Faso: Yes

Maloney: No

SENATE

TAX OVERHAUL: Voting 51-48, the Senate on Dec. 20 joined the House (above) in approving the conference report on a GOP bill (HR 1) that was headed to President Trump for his signature. The bill includes these provisions in addition to ones noted above: • For owners of passthrough 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 so-called 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 to 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 perevent losses topping $100 to be deducted only if collective losses from disasters total at least 10 percent of adjusted gross income. • 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. A yes vote was to adopt the conference report.

Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.:

No Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.: No STOPGAP FUNDING: Voting 66-32, the Senate on Dec. 22 joined the House (above) in passing a bill (HR 1370) that would fund the government on a stopgap basis through Jan. 19. A yes vote was to send the bill to President Trump for his signature. Gillibrand: No Schumer: No

COMING UP

The House and Senate have adjourned until the opening of the Second Session of the 115th Congress on Jan. 3.