House tax writers eye SALT deduction cap rejected by key lawmakers last week

The House Ways and Means Committee is eyeing a plan to increase the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap by $30,000 for single and joint filers who make $400,000 or less a year, even after key lawmakers vocally rejected that proposal last week.

The idea, which four sources confirmed to The Hill, was discussed during a Monday morning meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), SALT Caucus members and lawmakers who sit on the House Ways and Means Committee, as the group looks to reach an agreement on the hot-button issue ahead of the tax-writing panel’s markup, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Two of the sources said that, at the time of the meeting, the proposal was likely to make it into the panel’s portion of the bill full of President Trump’s legislative priorities, which is expected to be released Monday afternoon.

Lawmakers could still change the text ahead of its Monday afternoon release, and the language will be subject to change during the marathon debate.

Emerging from the meeting, Johnson said the group had not yet reached a deal on the hang-up, but he said the lawmakers “intend” to find consensus on a new SALT deduction cap ahead of the Ways and Means markup.

“There were lots of numbers discussed. There is no set number yet, that’s the whole thing, this is still being resolved today,” Johnson told reporters. “But it was a very thoughtful, productive discussion amongst SALT Caucus members and Ways and Means Committee members.”

“There's some things on the table right now that we’re talking through,” he added. “So stay tuned.”

One source told The Hill that SALT Caucus members told leadership they would be content with a $62,000 cap for single filers and a $124,000 cap for joint filers, which would take effect in 2025 and would be indexed for inflation moving forward.

Four of the SALT Caucus members on the call — Reps. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Thomas Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) — expressed support for those numbers.

Moving ahead with a $30,000 SALT deduction cap — which is triple the current $10,000 cap — is sure to spark immediate opposition from members in the SALT Caucus, who called that figure a nonstarter last week.

The House Ways and Means Committee discussed potentially increasing the cap to $30,000, and when that figure leaked, SALT Caucus members put out scathing statements slamming the proposal.

“We’ve negotiated in good faith on SALT from the start—fighting for the taxpayers we represent in New York. Yet with no notice or agreement, the Speaker and the House Ways and Means Committee unilaterally proposed a flat $30,000 SALT cap—an amount they already knew would fall short of earning our support. It’s not just insulting—it risks derailing President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill,” LaLota, Lawler and Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) wrote in a statement.

Garbarino and Kim, the co-chairs of the SALT Caucus, put out their own statement, calling the $30,000 figure “a slap in the face to the hardworking taxpayers we represent" and one that "stands in the way of progress on our House Republican’s larger agenda.”

The debate over the SALT deduction cap has split the party for years, with moderate Republicans from high-tax blue states — New York, New Jersey and California — pushing to increase the cap, which was first put in place as part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, and hard-line conservatives pushing back out of concern for the ballooning deficit.

In a sign of the entrenched disagreements, the House Ways and Means Committee released a partial text for its part of the GOP’s mega bill, which notably excluded any mention of the SALT deduction cap.

SALT Caucus members are signaling that they will not give in on their demand for significant relief for their constituents. When House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) posted a photo on the social platform X of white smoke emanating from a House office building — apparently signaling progress on the tax portion of the deal — LaLota responded with a photo that read “No SALT. No Deal. For Real."