Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01), who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, opposed the Ryan-McConnell tax bill today on the House floor because it will increase taxes on millions of middle-class families. House Republicans still passed the bill without a single Democrat supporting the measure – it now heads to the Senate for further action.

“In this Ryan-McConnell tax bill, Republicans have gifted the wealthiest corporations and individuals with massive new tax cuts and loopholes to take advantage of,” DelBene said. “Not a mother working two jobs to put food on the table, not a farmer struggling through a bad year, not a senior trying to pay for a prescription, have ever told me that tax reform means corporate cuts on the backs of them and their families. Republicans always promise that the benefits will trickle down to working people, but they never do and they never will. And what’s worse, they’ve made it clear cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are next.

“Instead of bringing Democrats and the public into the process, Republicans worked behind closed doors to take care of their corporate special interest allies, the wealthy and the well-connected, while putting middle-class Americans’ finances and healthcare on the chopping block.”

Video of her speaking on the House floor before the vote can be found HERE.

The Republican bill would add at least $1.5 trillion to the deficit, paid for on the backs of workers, seniors and future generations. It would also result in 13 million Americans losing their healthcare coverage and will allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

During committee markup, DelBene offered amendments to protect middle-class families from tax hikes that would make housing and healthcare among other things more costly, but Republicans blocked them all. Her questioning on the unfairness of corporations being able to continue to use deductions eliminated for individuals under the plan went viral.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed the Republican tax bill out of committee along party lines after just four days of markup and less than a week of having the bill text available to committee members and the public. The last time Congress passed a major tax overhaul in 1986, the committee underwent a year-long review of tax reform proposals, with 30 days of public hearings and a 26 day markup of legislative text.

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