Congress will get to work this week in earnest on its sweeping tax and budget reconciliation bill with several House committees releasing and marking up their portions of the legislation.
The municipal market is closely tracking the $4.5 trillion bill for any text that tinkers with tax-exempt municipal bonds or private activity bonds and other policies that will impact sectors like higher education or health care.
The legislative text is still not available for the full bill. Five House committees are expected to release text and hold budget reconciliation markups this week. The most closely watched section of the bill for the muni market will come out of House Ways and Means, which will tackle tax policy and the extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That markup is tentatively scheduled for May 12, pushed back from an original target of May 5, said Brett Bolton, vice president of federal legislative and regulatory policy at the Bond Dealers of America.
"They still seem to be ironing out differences behind the scenes, while allowing for less controversial provisions to be debated publicly in the coming weeks to show progress on the bill," Bolton said. "I wouldn't be shocked if the tax-title continues to take more time than expected to be released and marked-up even beyond the 12th."
On Tuesday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Armed Services, Education and the Workforce and Homeland Security committees are expected begin to their markups. The House Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services and Judiciary committees are set for Wednesday.
The Energy and Commerce committee, tasked with finding at least $880 billion in cuts, the most of any committee, plans to begin its markup May 7, according to reports.
The need for revenue offsets will depend in part on how lawmakers
The Senate will take up the bill after it passes the House.
The Treasury Department is expected to announce this week the so-called X date for the debt ceiling when the U.S. will run out of money to cover its payments. That date will be important to the timeline for the reconciliation bill, which includes a provision for lifting the debt ceiling and so would need to be passed by the X date in lieu of separate debt limit legislation.
President Donald Trump was to meet Monday with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has set an ambitious Memorial Day deadline, ahead of reconciliation talks, according to Roll Call. Trump urged Republicans to remain on Capitol Hill to work on the bill and not travel to Michigan for a planned rally marking his first 100 days in office.
"It is much more important that everyone stay in Washington this week to work hard and fast on all of it – IT MUST BE DONE," the president posted on social media. "You will be missed, but your work is far too important to take any time off. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
