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Illinois Republican Rep. Darin LaHood said on Friday he’s considering a Senate run next year, just two days after the Democrat holding the seat announced he would not seek reelection.
Sen. Dick Durbin said he’s retiring after a combined 44 years in both chambers of Congress, creating an opening in what has historically been a solidly blue state.
“You don’t often have an open Senate seat in the state of Illinois; they come about every 25 years,” LaHood said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington. “We’ve had a lot of people reach out to us, and so we’re going to take a hard look at it and we’ll make a decision at the appropriate time.”
“We’ve been very encouraged by a lot of support,” LaHood added.
In the meantime, LaHood told Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller that he’s focusing on the tax bill now under consideration by the Ways and Means Committee, where LaHood chairs the subcommittee on work and welfare. LaHood said he expects the panel will advance its portion of the package by early June.
“We’re head and shoulders ahead of the Senate, in terms of pen-to-paper,” LaHood said. “The speaker and Chairman [Jason] Smith have us on a track to try and get a bill out of the Ways and Means Committee by early June.”
Smith, R-Mo., previously said that he wanted Congress to send a bill to Trump’s desk by Memorial Day weekend.
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The committee plans to make permanent the tax breaks first enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, LaHood said, including a 100% bonus depreciation, an expanded child tax credit, and a larger research and development tax credit. He added that Republicans are also scoping out “an appropriate ramp down [of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits] that allows for businesses and companies to continue to be active in this space, but also saves money.”
“There’s a bullseye on the IRA,” LaHood said. “We’re not in the business of subsidizing like China does, or having state-owned enterprises.”
LaHood also said he is “optimistic” that his legislation expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit makes it into the final package: “We think now is the time.”
“It’s vital that we increase our housing stock in the United States,” he said.
As for language that would hike the debt ceiling, LaHood said he expects it to be “somewhat controversial,” given pressure from the party’s fiscal hardliners.
“Having President [Donald] Trump push for this and having our leadership push for it is going to be a bit of an uphill battle,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty good track record thus far in getting important legislation through; I think this one will be a little tougher.”
The Semafor View
The boundaryless pools of money that defined finance in the last 20 years are retreating, and capital is becoming a national resource to be protected. Public and private markets seem set to converge: Where they meet — and which firms stake out territory — could determine finance’s winners over the next decade.
Read more in The Semafor View ->