Senate

McConnell: Tax reform unlikely by August

by Jordain Carney - 03/09/17 11:20 AM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday poured cold water on the Trump administration’s goal of completing tax reform by the August recess.

“I think finishing on tax reform will take longer,” McConnell said during a Playbook Live interview.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said late last month that the administration wants to wrap up a long-held GOP goal of overhauling the tax code before lawmakers leave for a monthlong break.

“So we are committed to pass tax reform,” he told CNBC. “We want to get this done by the August recess.”

{mosads}The Senate is tentatively scheduled to leave town by July 31st and return during the first week of September.

Pressed about when he thought lawmakers would be able to complete tax reform, the Senate’s top Republican demurred.

“It is complicated. All of those discussions are already under way,” McConnell said. “How do you craft it?”

Republicans are expected to use reconciliation to approve tax reform, meaning they would be able to clear the bill through the upper chamber with only GOP support.

McConnell added on Thursday that the Senate has to wrap up work on an ObamaCare repeal bill, also being passed through reconciliation, before it can bring tax reform to the floor.

Senate GOP leadership wants to vote on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act by early April.

Tags Mitch McConnell