'Dead on arrival': Republican shoots down GOP senator's bid to change key part of budget

Republicans in Congress are still unable to agree on a core part of H.R. 1 — President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" — and the disagreement may end up derailing GOP leaders' goal of passing the bill by July 4.

Politico reported Monday that Republicans remain at loggerheads over the state and local tax deduction (SALT), with current law allowing taxpayers making $400,000 per year or less to deduct up to $10,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax return. The House version of the bill raises the income limit to qualify for the deduction to $500,000, and allows taxpayers to deduct up to $40,000.

However, the SALT deduction has been the subject of intense debate in the Republican-controlled Senate, where none of the 53 members of the Senate Republican Conference hail from the same high-tax blue states that include districts that Republican members of the House's SALT Caucus represent. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) has been attempting to tweak the SALT portion of H.R. 1, which Politico reports costs approximately $300 billion over a 10-year period in the House bill.

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Politico reported that Mullin is aiming to lower the qualifying threshold from $500,000, and hopes to reduce the amount taxpayers are able to deduct from $40,000 to a lower number. Mullin said he didn't "want to release a number just yet," though he hinted that there was "an acceptance" from his Senate colleagues about what the new numbers should be.

"I think we’ve got an option that, like I said, neither side is going to love, but it’s going to be something that we’re all going to have to deal with," he said.

But Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) indicated that he and his SALT Caucus colleagues would sink the bill if Senate Republicans made any reductions to that tax credit. The New York Republican vowed that any bill the Senate passed that watered down the House Republicans' SALT negotiations would be "dead on arrival." LaLota has previously observed that should Congress not agree on a new SALT limit, taxpayers would be able to deduct an "unlimited" amount of state and local taxes after 2027.

"I’ve heard what some Senators want the House to give up, particularly on the SALT income cap, but I’ve yet to hear what they are offering in return,” he said. “A one-sided proposal like that is not a compromise."

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