In the early morning hours of Saturday, the Senate passed their Tax Reform package by a vote of 51-49. In the end, only one Republican senator voted no on the package after a lot of deal making that took place throughout the day on Friday.
The Senate bill remained silent on WOTC and the other 2015 PATH Act program that are currently in effect through 12/31/2019. That means that the Senate’s intent is to keep current law in effect for the WOTC program.
The next step will be to convene a conference between the House and Senate to reconcile the differences between their two bills. With limited time to produce a final bill before the holiday recess, it is thought that the final negotiations at this point will be primarily done between leadership (Ryan and McConnell). The crafting of the Senate bill was a very delicate process and it would appear very little can change from their version in whatever is crafted as the final bill as they can only afford to lose one additional Republican vote. Therefore, the thought would be that the Senate version will be the primary package that survives with only a few modifications from the House.
We will be stepping up our efforts this week in contacting members of Congress to ensure that the House vision for WOTC is not incorporated into the final version. There is strong support for WOTC on the Senate side and our supporters will be active.
We’ll keep you updated as the process evolves this week. If you have any questions, please let me know.