Early this morning, the House of Representatives approved a major tax and budget bill that forms the centerpiece of President Trump’s legislative agenda. The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by a vote of 215-214, with one Republican voting “present” and two not voting. All Democrats and two Republicans voted against it.
The bill, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, centers around the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which are slated to expire at the end of the year. It also includes increased spending on border security and defense, offset by cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other domestic programs.
Passage of the bill followed weeks of furious negotiations between moderate and arch-conservatives, last-minute changes, and all-night sessions in committee and on the House floor to pass it by Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) self-imposed Memorial Day deadline. With a razor-thin majority in the House, Republicans could afford to lose a handful of their members on the final vote. The bill now goes to the Senate, which is all but certain to make changes, requiring the two chambers to reconcile their differences before sending it to the White House.
A number of provisions will – or could – impact the CRM industry:
Tax Deduction for Pass-Through Businesses. The bill would permanently extend a deduction for pass-through businesses like S corporations and partnerships – how a large number of CRM firms are organized – and increase the deduction from 20 percent to 23 percent starting in 2026. Without this provision, tax rates on pass-throughs would increase next year.
Increases in Energy Project Leases. The bill would reinstate quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales for Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada, Alaska, and other states where land is available for oil and gas leasing. It also requires the Department of the Interior to conduct yearly lease sales for geothermal energy projects, as well as ;lease sales in Alaska. And it requires at least 30 offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over 15 years beginning in August 2025.
Phase-Out of Energy Tax Incentives. The bill would phase out and eliminate a number of clean energy tax incentives that were enacted in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including the clean electricity production (48E and 45Y) tax credits. A late change to the bill, made to offset the cost of other provisions, accelerate the phase out requiring construction of an eligible facility to start within 60 days of the bill’s enactment and the plant must be placed in service by the end of 2028.
Project Sponsor Fees for NEPA. The bill includes provisions stipulating that, if project sponsors pay a fee for preparing NEPA documents, environmental assessments must be finalized within six months and environmental impact statements within one year; in addition, no administrative or judicial review of an EA/EIS for which a fee was paid would be allowed.
Sale of Utah and Nevada Lands Removed. One major provision in the initial draft of the bill that was removed at the last minute would have allowed the sale of approximately 450,000 acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada. Removal of the provision was championed by Montana Rep. and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (R), who voted for the bill once the provision was stripped.
ACRA is continuing to analyze the bill to assess the impact of other provisions on the industry.