Jeffries sounds off on SALT Republicans
“Now some of my colleagues want to race down to Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee and pretend like they are the firefighters,” the top House Dem told me. “I mean, it’s a laughable thing.”
First Things First
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. My heart is with the people of southern California and the first responders as they deal with a massive wildfire that, as of this morning, had spread to at least 2,925 acres, with its intensity stoked by extreme Santa Ana winds.
Los Angeles County fire officials said the fire had destroyed at least 1,000 structures and caused a “high number of significant injuries” among residents who did not evacuate, including two deaths. The Los Angeles Fire Department said that over 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, and more than 10,000 houses and 13,000 buildings were threatened. LA County is in a state of emergency. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters this morning that House Democrats are prepared to provide any necessary support to the Biden administration, the California state government and the people of Los Angeles County as they navigate the catastrophe.
“We will evaluate requests that are made from the governor of California as well as likely from the current administration,” he added. “And we’re prepared to act quickly in the stay in Washington as long as necessary in order to get that emergency relief out to the families who are in harm’s way in California.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Mychael Schnell at The Hill that House Republicans have yet to discuss approving additional disaster aid in response to the wildfires.
President Joe Biden was already in California on Tuesday to dedicate two new national monuments protecting tribal lands in the state, but the event was postponed. Last night, he was briefed and, at Gov. Gavin Newsom's request, approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant to support the impacted community and help reimburse California for firefighting costs.
Biden visited a Santa Monica fire station this morning for a briefing from local officials. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was also in attendance.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s Brentwood neighborhood was put under an evacuation order last night. No one was at her home at the time, her spokesperson Ernie Apreza said in a statement.
“She and the Second Gentleman are praying for the safety of their fellow Californians, the heroic first responders, and Secret Service personnel,” Apreza added. “The vice president and president continue to closely monitor the wildfires, remain in touch with state and local officials, and have offered any federal assistance that is needed to help respond and recover from this terrible disaster.”
Harris received a briefing this morning on the wildfires in southern California, the ongoing coordinated efforts to contain the flames, and additional federal actions that are being taken to help respond to this disaster.
In tonight’s issue, the top House Democrat tells me why he’s unimpressed by the actions of a handful of blue-state Republicans to provide their constituents tax relief as part of a bill to extend the 2017 tax cuts. Plus, why some Democrats are skeptical Republicans can even craft a bill to vote on in the first place.
But let’s start with what to expect on tomorrow’s day of mourning, the day of former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral service, plus some fresh reporting on the Laken Riley Act, the bill the House passed on Tuesday that would require the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants who have been charged with theft in the US.
Former President Carter continues to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to pay my respects this afternoon and deeply moved by this stunning oil painting by my fellow independent Hill journalist Pablo Manríquez. Browse Pablo’s Instagram profile for more of his work.
President Carter will receive a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. President Biden will deliver Carter’s eulogy. Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, will give a speech. The sons of former President and Carter’s predecessor Gerald Ford and Carter’s vice president Walter Mondale will also speak. Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump will attend the ceremony.
Following the funeral, Carter’s remains will be transported back to Georgia on a military aircraft for a private funeral service with his family and close friends before the remains are returned to Carter’s home for a private burial.
Switching gears, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) took steps this morning to set up the first procedural vote to advance the Laken Riley Act on Friday.
If Senate Republicans have full attendance, then the bill would need eight Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold to move forward. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) not only announced his intention to vote for the bill, he joined Sen. John Fetterman as a cosponsor of the Republican-crafted legislation. Arizona’s other Democratic senator, Mark Kelly, will also vote to advance the bill. He’ll be joined by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine). Those votes combined with Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) who committed his support yesterday; Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who voted for the bill when she was in the House last year; and Sen. Jon Ossoff(D-Ga.), who’s up for reelection next year and could face pressure from his right for voting against a bill named after a college student who was murdered in his state, are more than enough to advance the bill.
Several senators did note their support to move the bill forward did not guarantee they would vote for final passage. Many will look to amend the bill first, which could help keep a bipartisan coalition together in the Senate but make the bill too moderate for hardline conservatives to agree to in the House.
Speaking of the House, Hakeem Jeffries downplayed the increase in House Democrats who supported the bill yesterday and instead focused on the need for comprehensive immigration reform. (Jeffries voted against the bill yesterday and last March when it was first voted on.)
“House Democrats look forward to working with the incoming administration and our Republican colleagues on securing the border in a common sense manner and fixing our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way.”
The Evening Report
President-elect Trump, who’s in town for former President Carter’s funeral will meet with Senate Republican leadership and membership this evening to discuss the party’s strategy for passing much of his border, energy and tax agenda through a party-line legislative process called budget reconciliation. (I’ll go deep on the reconciliation process in an upcoming issue, so stay tuned.)
The Senate huddles comes ahead of a series of meetings Trump will hold this weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida with the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and the various committee chairs who will be responsible for writing specific portions of the final bill.
Trump is also scheduled to meet with a group of blue-state Republicans who have threatened to withhold their support for the reconciliation measure unless it includes an increase in the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. This deduction, which primarily benefits wealthy and upper-middle-class taxpayers, allows them to subtract state income taxes and property taxes from their adjusted gross income.
The SALT deduction, designed to prevent double taxation by letting taxpayers deduct state and local taxes from their federal taxable income, was capped at $10,000 under the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Since then, many homeowners in high-tax states have been unable to fully deduct the thousands of dollars they pay in property, state, county, and local taxes, leaving them with a higher overall tax burden.
“The thing that’s interesting about the whole state and local tax deduction issue is that the Republicans burn the house down and not want to pretend that they’re firefighters. Are you kidding me?” Hakeem Jeffries told me this morning. “The state and local tax deduction was obliterated as part of the GOP tax scam in 2017. Why was it done? Because the Republicans and the far-right extremists wanted to jam massive tax breaks down the throats of the American people and so they passed a bill where 83 percent of the benefits are projected to go to one percent—that’s the wealthiest in this country. That’s the GOP tax scam part one.”
Jeffries wasn’t finished: “And as a part of that effort, Republicans on a strictly partisan vote destroyed the state and local tax deduction, and now some of my colleagues want to race down to Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee and pretend like they are the firefighters. I mean, it’s a laughable thing.”
But he added he and his members would work across the aisle to create a bipartisan fix to the SALT cap.
“House Democrats will work with any serious-minded individuals to fully restore the state and local tax deduction in order to help working families and the middle class who were hurt by the GOP tax scam and the destruction of a state and local tax deduction.”
While Republicans will largely be occupied with the process particulars, House Democrats are content to sit back and watch their counterparts cancel out each others’ interests with a technical majority that will leave little room for defections.
“When have you seen them be able to handle any process? I think this is going to be the same. It’s going to be a lot of chaos and back and forth,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who was at the center of Hill Democrats’ reconciliation tug-of-war between the White House and her party’s moderate members in 2021 as chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “I will say, you know, it was not easy for us either. But we were generally much more on the same page about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish. And I think we were much more honest with the American people about what we were trying to do and why and that it was in their benefit, as you could see with everything that we did end up getting done—it was all in the benefit of working people, middle-class people, poor people across this country.”
It’s the beneficiaries of the Trump tax cuts that have Democrats sounding the alarm to Americans on the GOP’s plans to extend them.
“Americans should know that Trump’s cabinet of billionaires will prioritize things that give billionaires more resources,” Jayapal said. “That’s true on immigration. [Yesterday] we were debating a bill about mandatory detention for all undocumented immigrants. Guess who benefits from that? All the private, for-profit detention companies who collectively contributed over a million dollars to Trump’s campaign and are already bragging about the profits that they’re going to make.”
Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) told me this week that the country is entering “find out” season as Trump prepares to implement his agenda. In other words: Elections have consequences.
“It’s not surprising at all,” she told me of the GOP’s slow start to the complex exercise. “It’s indicative of how they have been governing this entire time. It has been the Democrats who have consistently, constantly come to their aid to make sure that the American people do not suffer at the hands of their foolishness.”
Do you have questions about the new Congress or the incoming Trump presidency? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll report back with answers.
Today in Congress
The House did not meet in observation of the lying in state of former President Carter.
The Senate met this morning but did not take votes.