House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), in meetings with members of the New Democrat Coalition and his panel’s minority members last week, sought input on a tax reform bill — including a controversial border adjustment provision — but left Democrats on Capitol Hill and other sources doubting whether Brady’s August time line for a House bill is realistic.
[Jenny Leonard] April 13th, 2017 [Inside U.S. Trade]
New Democrats chair Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told Inside U.S. Trade after an April 4 meeting that Brady repeatedly “raised the bipartisan point that he would really like to work with us to develop something that we can support.”
“The most important thing that came out of the meeting was he’s very interested in engaging with us, hearing our concerns — a lot of them of course were on BAT,” Himes said, referring to the border adjustable tax at the center of Brady’s plan. “He said he really wanted to drive an open and bipartisan process. There can sometimes be a gap between intentions and reality.”
“Now we’re all aware of the fact that that side needs to come to some alignment as to what they want before they can come looking for our input, so we’re not naive about this,” he added.
