With Election Months Away, Senate Rejects Tax Legislation Fixing R&D Expensing Ahead of August Recess
As election politics heat up, a bipartisan tax package that would allow full expensing for R&D in the year it occurs failed a procedural hurdle on August 1, dooming the broad tax legislation’s chances until after the November election.
The legislation, which easily passed the House earlier in the year, emerged from a bipartisan negotiation between House and Senate tax writers. The 44 aye, 48 nay vote did not follow party lines, highlighting the complicated politics of a bill that expanded the childcare tax credit while also expanding or fixing tax provisions supported by the business community.
Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), and Rick Scott (R-FL) supported the bill while Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) voted against it.
A number of senators expressed fear this shows a lack of interest in bipartisan work on expiring Trump-era tax cuts that will need to be renewed next year. “This will set the stage for the beginning of the debate for what the extensions of the Trump tax cuts should look like next year,” Michael Bennet (D-CO) said after the vote.
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