Tax bill ‘frenzy’ leading to errors from exhausted staffers: report

Congressional negotiators are dealing with drafting errors in Republican tax-reform legislation often put in by exhausted staff as the party seeks to push through a final bill by Christmas, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The party’s stated goal of getting a tax bill passed and signed by President Trump by Christmas has led to a process that some told the newspaper has been rushed, leading to unexpected discoveries within the bill.

“The frenzy, and I would call it a frenzy, to get it done and have a Christmas present for America — number one, I think it’s unnecessary; it’s a self-imposed deadline, and number two, it makes the possibility for error much greater,” Steve Bell, a senior adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told the newspaper.{mosads}

A tax bill passed each chamber without a single vote from a Democrat.

The House and Senate each voted last week to move the bill into a conference committee, where representatives from each chamber will hash out the differences between the two bills.

Among the most significant differences between the two versions is that the Senate version repeals the ObamaCare individual mandate and modifies the estate tax, or “death tax.”

Both the House and Senate bills call for the corporate tax rate to be cut from 35 percent to 20 percent.

If the bill is approved by Christmas, it will have taken less than two months from the time it was introduced in the House to the time it was passed into law.