Economy
House committee blocks GOP budget proposal
Written by Stephanie Ritenbaugh
May 16, 2025
A GOP-backed budget proposal stalled in the House Budget Committee as some conservatives joined Democrats in voting against the measure on Friday.
The Associated Press reported that hard-right lawmakers are insisting on steeper spending cuts to Medicaid and the Biden-era green energy tax breaks before they will support President Donald Trump’s bill.
The budget proposal has big implications for steel and manufacturing. The bill seeks to cut funding for Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) while adding or expanding business deductions and tax rates.
Changes to the IRA tax credits include accelerating phaseouts, applying foreign entity of concern restrictions, and repealing transferability.
Philip K. Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA), said he would like to see a deliberate approach to any IRA cuts.
“It’s incredibly important to understand that many provisions in the IRA are provisions that are what we call skill intensive,” Bell told SMU on Friday. “They will promote projects in the sustainability, decarbonization, infrastructure – areas that use a lot of steel – and we really want to be more surgical as we approach the IRA and those tax credits.”
He noted that many of the tax credits involving solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects were supported by steelmakers who produced the components for those applications.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) praised the bill for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, as well as holding a 21% corporate rate, extending R&D expensing and other deductions.
“The 2017 tax reforms were rocket fuel for manufacturers—driving job growth, higher wages, and investment in communities. This bill brings us closer to the vision of a 15% effective tax rate for manufacturers that President Trump and I discussed in 2016,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement.
Timmons added the bill would benefit manufacturers who are organized as pass-through businesses by increasing and making permanent the job-creating pass-through deduction.
The budget proposal must pass the committee before being sent to the House floor for a vote. Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to have the package approved the week of May 19.
Stephanie Ritenbaugh
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