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Trump, GOP face tough choices for second tax bill

3 14
02.09.2025

President Trump and Republican lawmakers passed their major tax-and-spending cut bill earlier this summer, faster than almost anyone else in Washington, D.C., was expecting.

Now, they're planning their second act.

The new law extended Republicans’ 2017 tax-rate reductions while making big cuts to healthcare and other social programs, adding $3.4 trillion to the national deficit through the next decade.

But there's still plenty of tax policy left for Congress to tackle this fall, including a number of expiring provisions that weren’t covered in the main reconciliation package.

Trump and Republicans could attempt to unite around another tax package and budget resolution, the vehicle on which it could pass both the House and Senate with simple majorities.

“It is a once-in-a-trifecta opportunity. You get two shots, and even if you use your first shot, you still have to try to use your second shot,” accountancy KPMG’s national tax principal Jennifer Acuna told The Hill. “There’s still fiscal year 2026 that can be utilized for a reconciliation bill.”

“Congress is going to have the opportunity,” she added. “They’re going to at least try to utilize that reconciliation opportunity.”

But other tax watchers think the passage of Trump's “big beautiful bill” will take the steam out of efforts this fall to pass a second reconciliation bill, making a bipartisan tax extenders package that could be tacked onto other legislation the more viable way to get more tax policy done.

“Least in terms of likelihood is some sort of reconciliation 2.0 – Too Big, Too Beautiful, or whatever we’re calling it,” Rohit Kumar, co-head of accountancy PwC’s national tax practice and former Senate GOP aide, told The Hill. “I’m just pretty skeptical that Republicans are going to be able to unite on another budget resolution and then another budget reconciliation bill.”

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© The Hill