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House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith on Wednesday pushed Senate Republicans to abandon their reluctance to raise the debt limit as part of the party’s sweeping tax and border bill.
Smith has championed House Republicans’ push for a massive party-line measure that would raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion while extending President Donald Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts, enacting new tax breaks, adding money for border security and the military, and cutting other federal spending.
But Senate Republicans, who already passed a budget with a different, narrower approach, are fretting that the hike could “sabotage the whole bill.”
“They have a larger margin in the Senate than what we do in the House, so they can lose the couple [members] that you just talked about and still pass it,” Smith said onstage at a retirement summit hosted by Semafor alongside BlackRock and the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think it is imperative that they keep the debt limit in there; that is what President Trump wants.”
The persistent strategic differences between House and Senate Republicans is a significant hurdle as the party’s lawmakers race to get a bill to Trump’s desk by Memorial Day — a deadline that Smith reiterated Wednesday. If Republicans drop the debt ceiling increase from their framework, they’ll have to enlist Democrats to help them raise it separately before the Treasury Department hits its borrowing limit in a few short months.
“The Democrats are not playing ball with anything right now,” Smith said. “It’s the same way with the debt limit: I think they would love to see the president of the United States being Donald Trump and see a default on our debt.”
The official point at which the government can no longer pay its bills, known in Washington as the “X-date,” will remain unclear until tax season wraps next month. But Smith pointed out that natural disasters like the California wildfires and Hurricane Helene could mean the deadline comes sooner than anticipated.
“When there’s a natural disaster like what happened there, they have an extension to file their taxes,” Smith said. “It could make a difference.”
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Republicans on Smith’s committee are holding a pair of marathon meetings this week as they hash out how to extend expiring tax cuts and enact new ones championed by Trump — including tax relief for tips and overtime pay — while still staying within the $4.5 trillion cap that fiscal conservatives signed off on.
“We spent eight hours, like I said, on Monday; we’ll spend eight to 10 hours today,” Smith said. “Everything is being looked at.”
So far, Smith and other top Republicans are staying tight-lipped about their decision-making.
“I continue to push for R&D; make that permanent,” Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., told reporters after Monday’s meeting, in a nod to Republicans’ proposal that companies regain the ability to deduct research and development costs from their taxes the same year.
Another likely topic: a Senate-led call to create more budgetary wiggle room by letting Republicans count pre-existing tax cuts as having no cost.
“I’m supportive, if the Senate can push that measure; I have serious doubts of whether they have the votes within their own chamber to be able to” score the Trump tax cuts as cost-free, Smith said. “I’ve thought that all along. But if they can deliver that, I welcome that.”
Senators on the tax-writing Finance Committee are also likely to discuss that topic during a White House meeting with Trump that’s scheduled for Thursday,
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a cameo at the House Republicans’ meeting on Monday to take questions from members, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., told reporters.
“It was a little random,” Kelly said, but “he handled it really well.”
The View From Democrats
Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee aren’t involved in drafting the partisan package — but that doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., on Tuesday reintroduced a bill alongside Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., that would provide long-term care insurance to qualifying older Americans. He said he’s weighing whether to pitch Smith on including the proposal.
“There’s an argument that it could go in there, if we could demonstrate between now and then that it will be a big savings in Medicaid,” Suozzi told reporters.