House Passes Bipartisan Tax Bill, but Election-Year Politics Complicate Its Path
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The House approved a $78 billion tax package Wednesday with a large bipartisan margin. The effort is a test of whether a dysfunctional Congress can pass major legislation in an election year.
The bill passed 357 to 70, with mainstream lawmakers in both parties driving the House’s first major bipartisan bill of the year to passage. Forty-seven Republicans and 23 Democrats voted against the bill.
But despite the lopsided show of support, the measure faces a fraught path to enactment amid political divides over who should benefit the most. The effort, which faces resistance from Senate Republicans, is a test of whether a divided Congress with painfully thin margins can buck the dysfunction of the Republican-led House, set aside electoral politics and deliver legislation that would contain victories for both parties.
Representative Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, championed the legislation as “pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-America.”
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