The House-Senate Conference on the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" (H.R. 1) held a public meeting on December 13, 2017, after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told reporters that an agreement on the tax bill had been reached.

Reports indicated that negotiators had decided on a statutory corporate tax rate of 21%, to take effect in 2018, and a top individual tax rate of 37%. Details of the agreement were not discussed at the public conference meeting and it is unclear whether they will be announced prior to Friday, when the final bill is expected to be released. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), who is also chairman of the conference, said he expects the conference committee to file its report at the end of the week.

Earlier, at a White House meeting with Chairmen Hatch and Brady, President Trump said "we're getting very close" to finalizing the tax bill and that some negotiators had stayed behind to attend to some final points. "But we're very, very close," the President said.

The President said he would support a bill with a 21% corporate tax rate and would be "thrilled" if the rate could be reduced so significantly. "We haven't set that final figure yet, but certainly 21 is a very great difference," he said.

Republican leaders would like to hold House and Senate votes on the conference agreement early next week, with the expectation that President Trump would sign the bill prior to the Christmas holiday. In a speech following the White House meeting, President Trump said it is "very important for the country to get a vote next week."

Democrats on the conference committee pushed for consideration of the tax bill to be postponed until Senator-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) can be seated. Jones's victory in the special election will, once he is seated, reduce the Republican majority in the Senate to 51 seats, from 52. Republicans rejected that idea and it is anticipated that the bill will be taken up and voted on while Luther Strange (R-AL) continues to hold the Alabama Senate seat.

Also, Democrats criticized the process by which the tax bill is being considered, including the fact that they have been shut out of the conference deliberations. They further expressed discontent about the conference meeting not dealing with what is apparently an agreed upon House-Senate compromise and, therefore, not being able to ask questions about that version of the bill. Under the rules, no further public meetings of the conferees are required and it is not anticipated that any will be convened.

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