WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) delivered the following remarks upon introducing his amendment to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Chairman Brady’s remarks as delivered:

“I am pleased to offer this amendment to the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute. The amendment makes modest refinements to the overall tax reform package that delivers tax relief to millions of families and helps our workers and job creators compete and win here at home and around the world.

“The amendment continues through the year 2022 the exclusion from income for employer-provided dependent care assistance. This benefit – when coupled with the other tax relief provided in the bill – will help families cover these important expenses.

“The amendment includes additional tools that will help protect the integrity of the Earned Income Tax Credit program. An important program but unfortunately under the status quo creates too much fraud.

“With respect to the excise tax on net investment income of educational institutions, the amendment focuses its application to institutions with endowment assets of at least $250,000 per student.

“This ensures that private endowments are placed on equal footing with private foundations. The amendment ensures that other changes in the bill do not disturb the characterization for tax purposes of income earned by songwriters when they sell their catalogue of compositions.

“In addition to the substantial relief for small businesses in the base bill, the first time our pass-through businesses along Main Street have received significant tax relief. The amendment includes a provision to ensure that employees of start-up companies can also share in the success of the business they are helping to build by better aligning the recognition of stock-based compensation for tax purposes.

“The amendment includes a provision that imposes an additional holding period requirement of three years with respect to gains on a ‘carried interest’ in an investment or real estate business.

“Finally, the amendment better tailors the bill’s international base erosion rules to circumstances involving the potential for tax avoidance. It narrows the focus to situations where the foreign affiliate has high returns. It also mitigates potential double taxation without relinquishing U.S. jurisdiction to recapture tax benefits from profit shifting.

“As this legislative process moves forward, we will continue to work to ensure that the international tax rules operate to appropriately protect the U.S. tax base while making America one of the best places in the world to hire, invest, and do business.

“More broadly, our work to fix America’s broken tax code will continue at every stage in the process – throughout the path of this bill from today’s markup to the President’s desk.

“I would also like to take a moment to reflect on what is not in this amendment and why we are not including various health-tax related measures as part of our tax reform effort.

“There is support on our side of the aisle for full repeal of the job-killing and other excise taxes that increase health care costs for consumers that were included as part of Obamacare in order to pay for massive new entitlements. However, as the Ranking Member and Members on both sides of the know – we have been working with them over the past month to find a path forward. We are working on common-sense temporary and targeted relief from many of these taxes to be acted on in the House before the end of the year. 

“That includes priorities such as relief from the Medical Device Tax, championed by Erik Paulsen, Ron Kind, and Representative Terri Sewell; the Health Insurance Tax championed by Kristi Noem and numerous others; and the tax on Over-The-Counter Medications, championed byRepresentatives Lynn Jenkins and Ron Kind.

“As such, we will move to these important health policies separately and immediately after conclusion of our tax reform efforts.

“I will also note that this is not the last effort to continue to make further improvements on the base bill. As we work to deliver more and targeted relief to small businesses, working with organizations – like NFIB and others – and working to address unintended consequences of certain insurance provisions and working with the council and others in that regard.”

CLICK HERE to read the amendment introduced by Chairman Brady.

CLICK HERE to read a summary of the amendment introduced by Chairman Brady