On December 15, congressional Republicans released the final text of their comprehensive tax reform plan, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The finished product — a bill of over 500 pages — follows a week of intense negotiations between the U.S. House and Senate, during which leadership made many changes to the bill to secure the necessary votes in each chamber. On Wednesday, December 20, both the House and Senate passed the bill on votes of 224 to 201 and 51 to 48, respectively. President Trump signed the bill into law on December 23, 2017.

The comprehensive tax reform plan released on December 15 follows House passage of H.R. 1 on November 16 and Senate passage of S. 1 on December 2. During the week of December 5, House and Senate leaders appointed over a dozen conferees, or negotiators, to the official conference committee on tax reform. These members, along with congressional leadership, negotiated many aspects of the bill, including corporate tax rates, treatment of businesses filing as individuals, child tax credits, the SALT deduction and more.

NACo will continue tracking tax reform efforts and advocating for key county priorities.