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The Week Ahead: Republicans work to wrap up tax reform before Christmas

In Washington:

Looking to get tax reform bill wrapped up before Christmas, Republican leaders in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate expressed confidence on Dec. 17 that Congress will vote to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the coming days.

During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he expects the Senate to pass the bill on Dec. 19. "What we've tried to do is cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed, at the same time, maintaining the integrity of the largest tax cuts we're going to be seeing since 1986," said Cornyn, who is the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. The House is also widely expected to vote on the tax bill as early as Dec. 19.

The final bill includes a permanent reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21%, effective immediately, down from the current statutory rate of 35%. Analysts have previously noted the legislation has a mixed appeal for large U.S. technology companies such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc., some of which already pay effective tax rates below 21% due to significant overseas cash holdings. To push companies toward repatriating that overseas cash, the final bill includes a one-time tax of 15.5% for repatriating cash and a rate of 8% for illiquid cash-like instruments.

The final bill also includes a repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax, or AMT, which is currently set at 20%. The AMT was designed to prevent businesses from taking so many credits and deductions that they pay no tax. Further, the bill allows businesses to write off the full cost of short-lived capital investment, such as machinery and equipment, for five years. After the five-year mark, the provision will begin to be phased out over the following five years.

While the partisan debate continues over whether a lower corporate tax rate and other breaks targeted toward businesses will lead to more jobs or better wages for workers, Bret Swanson, a visiting fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, or AEI, argued in a recent post that tax reform will allow companies to invest in better technology. The group pointed to research showing that physical industries — such as manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation — have not been investing as heavily in information technology advancements.

"Full expensing of equipment and a new 21-percent rate could help reverse this investment drought," AEI said.

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Congress:
Dec. 19 Federal agencies face a Dec. 19 deadline from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security centered on the removal of all Kaspersky-branded products. In tandem with the department's order, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology has requested an update from the Department of Homeland Security on the process, with the update due no later than Dec. 19.
Dec. 19 Both the House and Senate are expected to vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
FCC events
Dec. 19 The Federal Communications Commission's Mignon Clyburn, one of two democratic commissioners at the agency, plans to host an online town hall focused on net neutrality.
Industry events
Dec. 20 National Institute of Standards and Technology will host a webcast focused on its voluntary cybersecurity framework. The framework provides a common language for understanding, managing, and expressing cybersecurity risk both internally and externally. It can be used to help identify and prioritize actions for reducing cybersecurity risk, and it is a tool for aligning policy, business and technological approaches.
Dec. 20 The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's BroadbandUSA program will host its monthly webinar.

Stories of note:

Divided FCC overhauls net neutrality, gives FTC more authority over broadband

FCC majority supports national TV ownership cap review

Cable industry heads try to calm net neutrality concerns before FCC vote

Disney to acquire Fox for $52.4B in stock