{time} 1945

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I appreciate Congresswoman Kim so much and thank her for being here this evening.

You have been hearing about the SALT cap and the effect on your constituents. Have they been talking to you about this a great deal?

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim) for the purpose of a colloquy.

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Mr. SUOZZI. And are people talking about leaving the region because of the effect of the taxes? I yield to the gentlewoman.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Kim for her comments.

At this time, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), who has been a real leader on the issue of SALT, and who has been outspoken ever since 2017 on this issue. We are grateful to him.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Well, I thank Mr. Pascrell very much for his comments. I wanted to mention that the gentleman served as the mayor of his hometown. I yield to the gentleman.

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Mr. SUOZZI. And you talk about President Lincoln when the Federal Tax Code was first adopted, and the idea was that we didn't want the Federal Government stopping local governments and State governments from being the laboratories of democracy.

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Mr. SUOZZI. And so they put a deduction in place for State and local taxes so that State and local governments could govern the way they wish.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I know that the gentleman has always been a strong proponent for law enforcement, for the firefighters, and public safety officials, and they are very dramatically negatively affected by this. Is that right?

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Pascrell very much for his comments.

I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), a good friend and a leader, not just on this issue but in Congress.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this and for being such a fierce advocate for the middle class.

I now introduce a good friend of mine from California, who really had a district that was devastated by COVID. People lost their jobs at one of the greatest entertainment facilities in the country, and now he wants to tell us about how SALT is affecting his district.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Carbajal).

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I just want to--some people, when they hear you talk about this, and they hear a home worth $500,000, $600,000, $700,000, $800,000, they think, boy, that person must be really rich.

What they don't seem to understand is that in my State, in your State, and many of the States represented here, those are actually middle-class home values.

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Mr. SUOZZI. So we have to recognize that the country is not the same all over. If you make $150,000 in your household, you are in the top 20 percent of the income earners of the country.

However, if you make $150,000 in your district or my district, you are not a rich person. If you make $150,000 in Oklahoma or in Iowa or North Dakota, you may be a wealthy person. So we have to recognize these regional differences.

People say: Well, why should we be subsidizing what you are doing?

And the gentleman points out so clearly in what he just spoke about that we are, in fact, in our States, subsidizing the rest of the country. We are net donors and they are net takers.

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Mr. SUOZZI. I thank the gentleman for being such a fierce advocate.

Madam Speaker, I want to travel across the country from California now to New Jersey, to another fierce advocate; someone who served in the U.S. military as a Navy helicopter pilot for 5 years both in the Middle East and in Europe; someone who has been one of the fiercest advocates for the reinstatement of the SALT deduction.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Ms. Sherrill).

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congresswoman, you have been an amazing advocate. You mentioned in your remarks at the end there about this being a double tax. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

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Mr. SUOZZI. So you are getting taxed on the taxes you have already paid.

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Mr. SUOZZI. So if a family makes $100,000 in your State, and they have to pay $20,000 in taxes, between their property taxes and their income taxes, that leaves them with $80,000 of that income.

However, if they are in a low tax State where they don't have as good services, they start with $100,000, but they only pay $5,000 in State and local taxes, they have got $95,000 left in income.

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Mr. SUOZZI. But they are being taxed the same at the Federal level.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, now I want to go across the aisle again to Congresswoman Michelle Steel from California, who is also being accosted by her constituents. They are talking to her about the fact that they need the SALT deduction back.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Steel).

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being here tonight and for speaking out on this very important issue. We are grateful for your presence here tonight.

Madam Speaker, at this time I would like to go to the middle of the country, to the State of Illinois, where my good friend who serves on the Ways and Means Committee really is one of the brightest minds in Congress today, who wants to speak to us about the SALT deduction and its effect on his district.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider).

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congressman, I want to thank you so much. You hit on the topic of fairness so many times. Many of our States and our local governments have relied on this deduction for literally a hundred years, and it was suddenly taken away in 2017. It has had a dramatic effect.

Can you briefly touch on fairness one more time?

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Mr. SUOZZI. Thank you, Congressman. It really galls me sometimes when I hear people boasting about the fact that they are leaving our States and moving to other States, when, in fact, we are subsidizing the rest of the country with our tax dollars. Thank you so much for your leadership on this issue. We are very grateful.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Porter), one of the most progressive Members of the United States Congress, and also one of the great intellects who has been so passionate about this issue and has some very interesting things to share with us.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congresswoman, I ask you, please go into it a little bit further about this concept of double taxation. We have heard it several times here tonight. Just explain what you mean by double taxation.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the Congresswoman for a colloquy.

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Mr. SUOZZI. It is very important, Congresswoman, what you point out. This is a mandatory payment. You are not spending the money to go on vacation; you are not spending money to go out to dinner; you are not building an addition onto your home. This is a mandatory expense that you must pay, as you said, to your county, to your village, or to your State. That is no longer available to you.

In other States where the overall income is exactly the same, but the mandatory taking is much smaller, the tax bill is not as burdensome.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congresswoman, I want to thank you so much for being here. We have had some Republicans across the aisle here tonight. We have had some moderate Democrats here tonight. And we have progressive Democrats, such as yourself, here.

I think it is important that we point out that actually the SALT deduction is in keeping with progressive policy, because it supports those States that want to promote progressive policies within their States.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congresswoman, thank you so much. We really appreciate you being here this evening to talk about this.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer), back across to the other side of the country, one of my neighbors and good friends who serves as the chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus. He has been one of the strongest advocates for the reinstatement of the SALT deduction and the repeal of the SALT cap.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Congressman Gottheimer, thank you so much for pointing out all of those important points.

I want to go back to one thing that you have mentioned here tonight. We have heard from Senator McConnell and from others the concept of a blue State bailout, the idea that the SALT deduction is some sort of advantage for blue States. But you talked about how your State is actually a net donor to the Federal Government.

Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman for a colloquy.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, Mr. Gottheimer has been a great champion on this issue. I am grateful to him for pointing that out.

I know, in the case of my State of New York, in the past 5 years, New York has sent $150 billion more to the Federal Government than they have received back in Federal services or Federal contracts, whereas Mitch McConnell's State in the past 5 years, this same period, they have received $150 billion more in services and contracts than they have put back into the system.

The gentleman's advocacy on this issue has been stellar. I am grateful to him for being here tonight.

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Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the time that my colleagues and I have had tonight to make these different points.

I want to close by saying this is about fairness. It is not fair.

It is not fair that the State and local tax deduction has been in place for over 100 years so State and local governments have relied on this deduction in order to fund the programs that we have.

It is not fair that people are being taxed on taxes that they have already paid.

It is not fair that the taxes that are being paid in these States are no longer deductible on people's income tax returns.

It is not fair that, after all these years of relying on this deduction, it is no longer in place, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been boasting about people leaving my State and going to their States while we are, in fact, subsidizing those very States.

This is a battle that is going to continue. Hopefully, over the next few months, we will be able to build a coalition, together, of Democrats and Republicans who recognize that this unfairness has to be addressed and that we need to restore the State and local tax deduction for the benefit of the residents of my State and people throughout the United States of America who are relying on basic fairness.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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