IFPTE Sends Letter to Congressional Representatives Urging Them to Reject Anti-Worker Budget Reconcialtion Bill
Early this morning, as the House of Representatives continued a floor debate on the Republican budget reconciliation bill, IFPTE sent a letter outlining the disastrous impacts on working Americans, on low-income workers, on community and rural health systems, and American jobs if this bill were to be enacted.
The bill passed by a 215 to 214 margin just before 7:00 AM, after a Members of the House debated the bill on the House floor overnight. House Republican leadership and President Trump insisted on passing this bill which permanently extends the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (sometimes referred to as the Trump tax cuts), repeals tax incentives to modernize the energy sector for the 21st century, and will cut Medicaid and result in 13.7 million Americans losing their health care, cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program and risk 11 million Americans, and blocks state and local governments from enacting legislation to regulate artificial intelligence. This bill will also add $4.8 trillion to the nation’s deficit by delivering tax cuts that mostly benefit the ultra-wealthy and corporations and leaving working Americans vulnerable and with a weaker safety net when economic downturns or job losses hit.
IFPTE’s letter also notes that two of the provisions that cut Federal Employee Retirement System — increasing all federal employees contribtion rate to 4.4% and chaging the annuity calculation from a high-3 years of salary to a high-5 — were removed from the text that passed the House. IFPTE also reached out to House lawmakers to ask that a provision that granted the Treasury Secretary the authority to remove non-profit tax status for orgnaizations without due process be removed. That provision was not included in the text that was passed by the House.