The House Rules Committee late on November 14, 2017, reported a closed rule for consideration of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" (H.R. 1) without making changes to the bill or allowing for amendments to be considered during House floor debate. The Committee approved the Rule on an 8-3 vote.

The House floor vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is expected to occur on November 16, 2017, at some point following an address by President Trump to a House Republican Conference meeting at 11:30 a.m. The Rules Committee meeting was originally scheduled for November 15, 2017 at noon, but was accelerated to allow for some of the floor debate related to the bill to occur.

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual mandate was not added to the House bill despite some interest in doing so. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) said during the Rules Committee proceedings, which lasted more than five hours and rehashed many of the same issues from last week's Ways and Means mark-up, that he is open to eventual inclusion of the individual mandate repeal.

Asked during a Fox News Town Hall event why individual mandate repeal is not in the House tax bill, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said, "We didn't want to complicate tax reform, make it harder than it otherwise would be." He said House Republicans "want to see the Senate go first and see if they can get that done, and then we'll discuss whether or not it gets included in the end." Ryan has said a House-Senate conference would follow Senate passage of its tax bill. Senate floor consideration is likely to occur after Thanksgiving.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) included what is effectively repeal of the mandate, by reducing the tax penalty to zero, in a Chairman's Modification to his original mark, which was also released late last night. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Republicans think inclusion of the individual mandate repeal will be helpful in advancing the tax bill.

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