The focus is on timing as Senate Republicans prepare to consider their version of the House-passed One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA, H.R. 1) to extend Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions expiring at the end of 2025 and cut mandatory spending, and Republicans' July 4 target is seen as perhaps being slightly relaxed by new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates of the deadline for action on the federal debt limit and comments from President Trump. The president said Monday, "Hopefully, we're going to get that through, and we have a certain date picked out, an ideal date. If it takes a little longer, that's OK, but ideally, we're going to get by a certain date. And again, I think it's one of the most important pieces of legislation we've ever had before us and that the country's ever had."

The Senate Finance Committee wants tax and health sections nailed down by Friday, and additional parliamentarian review will be necessary to determine whether the assembled bill meets the Byrd Rule that sets strict revenue parameters for budget reconciliation bills (known as a "Byrd bath"). It is unclear when the Finance language could be released. The House is using a rule vote related to a package of budget rescissions to try to head off Byrd Rule violations by making technical changes to its version of the OBBBA, which hasn't yet been sent over to the Senate. Changes include striking Employee Retention Credit enforcement provisions and modifying language related to two Department of Agriculture to biofuels programs.

CBO said June 9 "the government's ability to borrow using extraordinary measures would probably be exhausted between mid-August and the end of September 2025," or about two weeks later than the agency had estimated in March.

"It gives a little more runway," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Monday, according to Politico, but "I still think that we want to complete this" by July 4. Senator John Curtis (R-UT) was doubtful of Republicans' self-imposed July 4 deadline. "I think a lot of us would be surprised if it passed by July 4," Curtis said at the POLITICO Energy Summit. "I think that's a false deadline. I don't think that we need to put a specific deadline on it. Let's get it right."

There are of course many meetings among Republicans as the OBBBA heads to the Senate floor:

• June 11: Senate Republicans meet to discuss the reconciliation bill, with a briefing expected from Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID)
• June 12: "Big Six" meeting with Secretary Bessent and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Leader Thune, and Finance Chairman Crapo and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears before the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee today and tomorrow.

Potential Senate changes to the House-passed OBBBA are already coming into focus, and House Republicans are warning against some of them. There has been increasing speculation that there could be a one-year delay in the House bill's new IRC Section 899, which would increase income tax and withholding tax rates and expand the application of the BEAT rules on foreign-parented groups, applicable to residents of countries with certain "unfair foreign taxes," including the undertaxed profits rule (UTPR) and digital services taxes (DSTs). Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has called for changes in various provisions of the bill, said June 10, "At the very least I expect a delay."

Attention on the current policy baseline used by the Senate, which doesn't count the cost of TCJA extensions, waned as the House and Senate decided on separate reconciliation instructions for each chamber in the budget resolution, but House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) has warned that use of the baseline could not pass in his chamber. Now Arrington and Budget Vice Chair Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), both members of the Ways and Means Committee, and 35 other members have rekindled the debate in a letter to Leader Thune that said the House bill paired tax cuts with meaningful reductions in spending to ensure the bill will not add to the debt relative to current law. "As the Senate considers changes, we remain unequivocal in our position that any additional tax cuts must be matched dollar-for-dollar by real, enforceable spending reductions," they said.

Politico reported: "Add this to the list of emerging House demands on the Senate, which now includes members of the vaunted SALT crew demanding their state-and-local-tax deduction deal stay entirely intact, and Rep. Chip Roy's insistence that the clean energy phaseouts remain untouched, while 13 other House Republicans say they want those same provisions watered down before they vote again."

Leader Thune and Chairman Crapo have said they want to make permanent the TCJA pre-cliff provisions on bonus depreciation, IRC Section 163(j) interest deductibility, and IRC Section 174 R&D expensing that are temporarily extended under the House bill. It has been reported that, even though the Senate has greater leeway with the Senate Finance Committee being given $1.5 trillion for additional tax cuts under the budget above the current policy baseline that ignores the cost of the TCJA extensions, the chamber may seek to trim the President's proposals included in the House bill, including no tax on tips and overtime income. Senator Tillis previously suggested leaving the President's proposals out, and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is doubtful of the growth prospects of the tips and overtime provisions.

However, Leader Thune said following the regular Tuesday party lunches, "The President, as you know, campaigned hard on no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, Social Security, interest on car loans. Those are all things that are priorities for the administration. And they were addressed in the House version of the bill, and I expect they will be in the Senate as well." Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith said on Bloomberg TV June 10 that any bill that doesn't include the President's proposals would be "dead on arrival" in the House. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested the no tax on tips and overtime proposals may get cut and need to advance in follow-on legislation. "All this may be hard to fit in completely. So let's have as big a bill as the market will bear, but realize that more is coming," he said in a Semafor report.

Bloomberg reported Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) as saying a plan to save the tax credit for the production of hydrogen, which is terminated after 2025 under the House-passed bill, is "on the table." The report said, "Senator Shelley Moore Capito, chair of the Senate's environmental committee who has a hydrogen project in the works in her home state of West Virginia, said extending the time projects have to qualify for the incentive is being discussed: 'We have to make it reasonable so we can get our hubs under construction.' "

A June 10 Wall Street Journal editorial criticized LIHTC provisions in the House bill: "Hard to believe, but Republicans in Congress want to expand a tax subsidy for real-estate developers under the guise of promoting affordable housing. It will do the opposite while larding up the tax code. The low-income housing tax credit has become an entitlement for home builders. Congress enacted the credit as part of the 1986 tax reform to mitigate the blow from extending the write-off period for apartment buildings. But evidence over 40 years shows the credit has failed to stimulate more construction while increasing building costs."

Some House bill provisions are being celebrated, including Trump accounts for children, with distributions used for qualified expenses related to education, business or a home purchase taxable as capital gains. During a June 9 Invest America Roundtable, the President said Trump accounts "will contribute to the lifelong success of millions of newborn babies … They are fully funded through targeted reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill, like the $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings, welfare reforms to stop waste and fraud, a 3.5% remittance tax, and more." Ways and Means Chairman Smith said, "Their child will have money saved to one day learn a trade, start a business, or to buy a home. Every child, every child born under this policy will have a better shot at a future. It does not matter if they live on a city block or on a county road. This will make a significant difference to their lives."

The Washington Post reported, "The Trump program is similar to 'baby bond' programs run in California, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., which give some newborns investment accounts. However, while those local programs were created to reduce the wealth gap by supporting children in need or lower-income families, Trump accounts will be made available to Americans regardless of their socioeconomic status."

IRS — The Senate will hold a procedural vote related to the nomination of former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) to be IRS Commissioner at noon today (Wednesday, June 11).

Bill intros — On June 9, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced a bill (S. 1987) to provide special rules for purposes of determining if financial guaranty insurance companies are qualifying insurance corporations under the passive foreign investment company rules. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 3844) to extend bonus depreciation for qualified film and television productions and to require minimum in-state spending thresholds for such productions.

The latest Washington Council EY DC Dynamics podcast is Episode 21, "Solving the Tax Bill Puzzle."