Let the ‘Zombie’ Tax Extenders Die, Groups Urge Congress

Opponents to a package of tax extender bills approved by the House Ways & Means Committee on June 20 let their voices be heard this past week on Capitol Hill at a panel hosted by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The extender bills include H.R. 3298, The Child Care Quality and Access Act of 2019; H.R. 3299, The Promoting Respect for Individuals’ Dignity and Equality (PRIDE) Act of 2019; H.R. 3300, The Economic Mobility Act of 2019; H.R. 3301, The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019.

The extender bills have been nicknamed “zombie bills” because they had previously expired within the last two years and proponents of them want to revive them from the grave. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the extenders package would add $150 billion to the debt over 10 years with interest, and $710 billion over 10 years if the temporary policies were permanently extended due to only one of the bills being offset. That singular offset is in HR 3301, which would reverse the 2017 tax law’s estate tax exemption increase three years earlier than scheduled.

See Melanie Waddell, Let the ‘Zombie’ Tax Extenders Die, Groups Urge Congress, Think Advisor, July 22, 2019.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.