White House won’t be releasing its own tax reform proposal: reports

The Trump administration has no plans to release a detailed proposal for reforming America’s tax code, instead relying on the GOP-held House and Senate to take the lead, according to Thursday reports.

CNBC Washington correspondent Eamon Javers reported that an unnamed administration official says the White House will not be releasing its own plan, and stressed that President Trump had never committed to doing so.

WH official tells me the Trump Administration will not release its own detailed tax bill proposal, instead will let Hill take the lead.

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) August 24, 2017

Official emphasizes WH never committed to releasing its own bill proposal. Says more important than details is that Hill pass something.

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) August 24, 2017

The alleged remarks follow a report from Bloomberg earlier Thursday afternoon in which Republican congressional leaders said they didn’t expect a proposal from the White House and instead would see the effort start in the relevant committees in the House and Senate.

{mosads}

At a press briefing Thursday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said an announcement on tax reform could come next week.

“Tax relief and the focus on tax relief for middle class Americans is a huge priority for this administration and certainly going to be a big focus in the fall. And we’re going to look at a lot of different ways in which to talk about that and present that to the American people, working with Congress to make sure that that happens,” Sanders said.

“We’ll keep you guys posted whether there are specific announcements. I think that you can expect some of that to take place in the very short order, probably next week and following through to the fall.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at the beginning of August that Republicans hope to finish tax reform by the end of the year.

“What we intend to do is to take up tax reform when we come back after Labor Day,” he told reporters. “The goal would be to finish that sometime this year.”

GOP efforts to overhaul the tax code, long at the top of conservative wish lists, took on new importance after the summer failure to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Desperate to show a major legislative win, Republicans have been debating scaling down plans and simply passing tax cuts instead of full reform.