Paul Ryan says tax outline will be released week of Sept. 25
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that an outline for the overhaul of the nation's tax code will be released the week of Sept. 25.
But GOP leaders were vague about what the plan would entail. Ryan and Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, announced that a tax blueprint would be given to lawmakers the week of Sept. 25, reflecting the consensus of the tax-writing committees, Ways and Means, Finance and the White House.
Ryan told reporters it was the "beginning of the process" to give "middle class families a much-deserved break."
After the House members have seen the outline, "the tax writing committees are going to take feedback and input, and then they're going to go produce their bills in the week ahead," Ryan said at Wednesday morning's GOP conference meeting.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press published later on Wednesday, Ryan said the aggressive timeline and push for reform is an effort to get the House on the same page as the Senate and White House to deliver a framework on what possible reforms would look like.
He contrasted the tax effort with the Senate's failure to pass their own version of health care reform.
"We moved our bill with the White House and the Senate then took months and months to work on another version and never got it passed, we don't want to repeat that again," said Ryan.
He added, "That's why we worked so far on the front end on the tax package. We're taking months to get consensus and getting something passed, so when we pass reform we're all working on the same page."
Ryan said that while he'd "love to have the Democrats supporting and working with us" on tax reform, he told reporters Republicans are prepared to act unilaterally.
"We're going to do it no matter what," he said.
In light of Mr. Trump's recent agreement with Democrats over government spending and the debt limit, Ryan noted he was still confident that Mr. Trump would still follow through in advocating for a conservative tax plan.
"We ran on doing tax reform, it's one of those things, a signature issue for us and we're well known for being passionate about it, so we do have to get this done. This is a commitment we made not just to Republicans but to Americans, it's important we deliver on this promise," he told the AP.