"Retailers support this effort and look forward to seeing a vote on the House floor before lawmakers go home for Thanksgiving."
WASHINGTON –The National Retail Federation welcomed today’s approval of landmark tax reform legislation by the House Ways and Means Committee and called on the full House to pass the measure as soon as possible.
“The last time Congress enacted comprehensive tax reform, it took the Ways and Means Committee nearly a month to debate the measure and take a vote,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said. “This time, the job has been accomplished in less than a week. That’s an amazing accomplishment that shows how committed Congress is to updating our nation’s tax code and delivering on the economic benefits that will come with tax reform. The months of work put in behind the scenes by congressional leadership, committee chairs and the administration clearly paid off to make this possible. Retailers support this effort and look forward to seeing a vote on the House floor before lawmakers go home for Thanksgiving.”
“Our nation has been waiting an entire generation for a new tax code that recognizes today’s modern economy,” French said. “Reducing tax rates for employers will help them create new jobs and cutting taxes for the middle class will put more money in workers’ pockets. That’s good for businesses, consumers and the economy alike. After waiting this long, we’re glad to see Congress finally focusing on the objective and getting the job done.”
Committee debate of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 began on Monday and concluded with a final vote today, only a week after the bill was introduced on November 2. That compares with 26 days of debate and voting when the last full rewrite of the federal tax code took place in 1986. The bill now goes to the full House, which is scheduled to take up the measure next week.
While the legislation has moved quickly, it is based on the Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code plan released in September following extensive negotiations between the House, Senate and White House that began early this year. NRF strongly supports the bill’s proposal to reduce the federal corporate tax rate to 20 percent from the current 35 percent, its proposal to tax small business “pass throughs” at 25 percent, and provisions to reduce personal income taxes for middle-class workers.
NRF has led the retail industry’s fight for tax reform for years, calling on Congress to eliminate tax breaks that benefit only some industries and to use the revenue saved to lower rates for all companies, including small businesses. A recent NRF analysis found that reducing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent could result in the creation of between 500,000 and 1.5 million new jobs throughout the economy.
About NRF
NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs – 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nation’s economy.