U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the House will act quickly on the Senate’s version of the President’s tax and spending bill, aiming to get the measure to the President’s desk by the target date—July 4th. KHJ News Washington, D.C. correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
With so much riding on the bill, including billions in new personal and business tax breaks that will also benefit American Samoans, Speaker Johnson is ready to cut short the traditional July 4th recess…
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(Transc.) Johnson: “So if the Senate does its work on the timeline we expect, we will do our work as well. And I think everybody’s ready for that.”
…with the House coming back early next week if the Senate can pass its bill by this weekend…
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(Transc.) Johnson: “We work out the final details…they would get that passed, maybe by Friday, Saturday…and I’ve told our members—we’ve just had the big Republican conference meeting that we’ve been meeting—and I’ve said, keep your schedules flexible.”
American Samoa will benefit, like the states, from an increase in the child tax credit in both the House and Senate bills, no taxes on tips or overtime for hourly workers, a larger tax break for seniors, and a range of business tax breaks.
However, the economic development credit, key for the cannery, will have to be addressed separately later in the year.
Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata said earlier that the bill preserves the territory’s 83-percent federal matching rate for Medicaid, or FMAP—improved in 2020—and does not touch its food stamp block grant.
The Senate, late in the week, was seeking workarounds to parliamentarian rulings against SNAP and Medicaid policy changes affecting the states, and was working with the House on differences over climate and state and local tax breaks.
