[ chatter] speaker ryan good afternoon. This is an historic day, a day that is a long time in coming. In fact, it was on this day, under this dome, in 1986, that congress to the final vote on the last overhaul of our tax code. That long. After that vote, president reagan said americans would finally have a tax code they ould be proud of. It was true then, but things look very different today, dont they . Instead of a source of pride, ur tax code has become a constant source of frustration. It is too big. It is to confiscated. It is too expensive. Today, we are taking the next step to liberate americans from our broken tax code. This unified framework delivers a new tax code that is simple, that is fair, that is progrowth and profamily. Utting taxes on hardworking americans so you can keep more americans so you can keep more of your own hardearned paycheck. Simplifying the tax code so that you can file your taxes on a forum the size of a postcard. Reforming our tax system so businesses, particularly small businesses, can gain a Competitive Edge on our foreign competitors. And taking bold steps to bring jobs and profits from overseas back home to the United States of america. This is vital to americas future. And it is urgent. We want the American People to wake up in the new year with a new system. Our tax rate on the house ways and Means Committee will work with the Senate Finance committee to turn this framework into legislation. I want to thank our counterparts in the senate and the administration, and i want to officially thank President Trump for his leadership. To him, this is a onceinalifetime opportunity that is all about more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecks for american families. For all of us, this is a now or never moment. The choice before us is really clear. We can succumb to the talking heads on tv and the special interests who want to maintain the status quo, or we can work ogether to seize this moment and do with the American People ent us here to do. We can write to the occasion and write our own future. We can finally get this done for more jobs, for higher wages, for bigger paychecks, for a stronger economy. For our workers, for our children, and for the more prosperous and were confident america that we all deserve. Thank you. Senator mcconnell. Senator mcconnell no one has been more passionate about what we are announcing today than the peaker for a longer for rep. Love time. He has waited out very well. To summarize what this is about, it is about getting america going again and growing again, providing jobs and opportunity. Senator mcconnell here rather than overseas. Providing middleclass tax relief, hardworking american families, so they can get ahead. Put another way, taking money out of washington, and putting it in the pocket of our itizens. Good afternoon. Thank you, leader mcconnell, and thank you, speaker ryan, for your leadership on a big, bold text reform effort. It is exciting to be with you today united around a framework that paves the way for bold transmission all caps informed. Americans have been waiting for years, too long, waiting to fix our broken caps. They have been waiting to long for better jobs, more takehome pay, and a strong economy. Oday, House Republicans joined with President Trump and our Senate Colleagues in letting the American People know that we are taking action now. Action that will bring more jobs, favor taxes, and bigger paychecks. After years of work in the house, months developing this framework with our Senate Colleagues in the white house, the ways and Means Committee is ready to turn this framework into legislation. The president President Trump can ultimately find it this year. We are closer than ever in finishing what we started for the American People, for the middle class workers and families and the main street job creators merely struggling to get by today. This is our year. To provide tax relief to millions of americans middleclass families and those who want to be middleclass families. To help workers and job creators of every size in every community compete and win any world in the world, anywhere in the world. And to make the tax code simpler and fair so americans can keep more of what they own, so fair nd so simple, nine out of 10 americans will be able to file the taxes using a simple postcard style system. Yes, we have a lot of work ahead, but today marks the majo americans will be able to file step forward in that process. The ways and Means Committee, leader mcconnell, speaker ryan, we are ready to build on this momentum and help get tax reform across the finish line for the American People. And i know our Senate Colleagues are ready to do the same. With that, i am proud to turn it over to the chairman of the Senate Finance committee. Senator. Thank you, senator. We are counting on you doing a really good job over in the house. E know you will do it. I was here in 1986, and we did that massive tax reform. I have to say, we reaped great benefits from it because the economy was turned around. We went forward like never before, and we intend to do that this time as well. I am proud of our members of the house and for the work they are doing in this area for our speaker, our chairman, and others as well, who are working in the house to try and bring a bill through that will make a real difference, and i am very proud of our leader in the senate, and of course our committee in the senate as people who are working together. I hope we can bring democrats and republicans together in the best interest of this country. We are going to do it. We are tired of things gone the way they are going and we are going to try to turn this mess around, and i hope we will have support from all of our senators and Congress People on both sides of the aisle for the benefit of our country. If you can come up, member of the Senate Finance committee. Thank you, mr. Speaker. The framework announced today sent a loud, clear message, and that is that tax relief is on the way for the american family. After eight years of economic and wage stagnation under the obama administration, families in this country, 50 of them, say they are living paycheck to paycheck. One third of the families in this country say they are only 400 away from a financial crisis. That is unacceptable. That is why this tax relief effort will bring muchneeded relief for working families in this country. Lower rates for families, doubling of the standard deduction for families, expanded Child Tax Credit for families in this country will mean that they will have more to spend on themselves and their families instead of sending it to washington, d. C. And the federal government. That is a good thing for families in this country. This thing is about your paychecks, higher wages, more Economic Growth in our economy that benefits every american, and i look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate Finance committee and with the administration to make this happen. I hope that there will be immigrants willing to work with us, because this is what they say they are for. If they are for middle income tax relief, why wouldnt they join hands with us and make it a possibility for the American People . We will look forward to what comes ahead. This is a very exciting time. Something that is long overdue that will be very meaningful in the lives of americans. Thank you. I would like to introduce the chairwoman of the House Budget Committee and a member of the ways and Means Committee, diane black. Good afternoon. I want to say thank u speaker ryan and chairman kevin brady for encouraging some really productive dialogue today in our conference. It is widely known that tax reform is high on the list of priorities for both congress and the administration. For years, we have been talking about the possibility of eform. That makes life easier for our hardworking americans and our small businesses, trying to navigate this very complicated, burdensome, and expensive tax system. Now, as the governing majority, we have the opportunity to translate all of this talk into action. And while i am encouraged by the steps that have been taken in the right direction today, passage of the budget is still the key that a mocks any of these great ideas. As chairman of the House Budget Committee, i am proud that my committee has already provided the blueprint needed to start up tax reform. The most conservative Budget Approved by this committee in 20 years, it received unanimous support of the republican members when it passed out of our committee in july. Using reconciliation, our budget paves the way for progrowth tax reform that reduces tax rates, sympathize the tax code as has already been said, and restores the trust in the American Economy and the workforce. Entities retreat, it is in todays retreat, it is clear we want to help job creators in the middleclass families. They are the ones often get hardest hit by the confusing tax system currently in place. I am encouraged that we are closer to changing that. The next step we need and should take is for tax reform is the passage of our budget. I would like to invite senator scott to come, member of the enate finance committee. Enator scott thank you. When we think about tax reform, the question that comes to mind is what is this really about for the average person back at home . I think of one of my constituents who is a single mom. Two kids, working very hard, meeting more of her takehome pay. Tax reform is about making sure that the single mothers of the world have an opportunity for more of their money stayed in their paycheck when they are taking the less out of their paycheck. It reminds me of my mother who raised to bang boys as a single mother. When we talk about tax reform, we think about the second component of tax reform which is about growing our economy so the jobs of the future are created and manifested here at home. If i could say it as simple as possible, i would say that this tax reform conversation is about keepyomoney. Laughter] peter roskam. Thank you, speaker. Hink about it. I can pull out this phone and lick on an app for an airline, click on a flight and a seat, and get aneticket an eto get sent back to me. There is an expectation we move forward as it relates to tax reform. We have a tax at a time when the entire internet did not exist from a Commercial Point of view, at a time when there was very little of the shared aegon of a. This is a transformational moment for us to dump 70,000 pages of complexity and to move something that is buoyant and inviting and ultimately transformational. Member of the Senate Finance committee. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I see this as an amazing opportunity and a responsibility for us to enact the legislation that will be consistent with this framework in which will allow us to achieve the growth we have been waiting so long to achieve. You know, there is nothing normal about a meager 2 growth with the United States of america. We are capable of so much more. When we get this right, i am confident we will achieve hat. What that means for the hardworking families that i represent all across pennsylvania is it means a direct pay raise when we lower heir tax burden. More jobs are created and more businesses are launched. Pward pressure on wages allows people to have a higher standard of living. So i am really excited about this opportunity, and i am confident we will seize the oment. Next, a member of the ways and Means Committee, congressman. This is a big deal. Opportunity is coming. An opportunity is coming for every american. Fairness, simplicity, but something that is absolutely crucial. A lot of you have sat through the presentations on what is happening to our society if we do not get Economic Growth. Yeah, we have some tough math ahead of us, but i am going to make you the argument that growth is coming if we make this work, and we are going to make it work. Next, a man who used to be a member of the ways and Means Committee. Who is now a member of the Senate Finance mitty. We will take him. En. Portman ohio. I like the energy in this room. This is a really exciting opportunity. This is about two things. One, it is dealing with the middleclass squeeze, and it is very real. Wages are flat on average. Ebs pences are up. Health care is one of the biggest ones. This is going to give people the opportunity to have a healthier family budget. Middleclass tax cuts are part of this. But it goes beyond that. It goes to the economy, having it generate more income and wages. When you look at what the Congressional Budget OfficeBudget Office has said, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, 70 of the benefit of lowering the Corporate Tax rate goes to wage growth. 70 of the benefit goes to workers. By the way, other studies show it is even higher than that. It is also about more jobs, so it is more jobs and better jobs. More jobs, by going to the kind of proposal that is being talked about here. Were going to bring back hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions of dollars from overseas to be invested in our economy and create jobs and opportunities. If we do this, get the rates down and go to this International System to bring this money back home, were going to generate 144 billion a year in new earnings to our country and 154,000 new jobs a year. This is about wages. It is about jobs. It is about opportunity. Last but not least, a member of the ways and Means Committee cabello. , carlos my colleagues are right. This is quite an exciting opportunity. Of course get to reform the tax code of the United States of america, but more importantly because we have the opportunity to improve the lives of every single american in this country. Throughout this process i thought a lot about young people in our country who perhaps have garaged from college with a promise that they would prosper and excel. And yet they are struggling. A lot of immigrant families, many in my own community who have come to this country seeking freedom and opportunity and yet they are not getting ahead. There is a lot of frustration and anxiety in our country because the economic recovery has not reached every single household and this is opportunity to change that. We really do have to deliver. [speaking spanish] well said. [laughter] about more jobs, fairer tax, bigger paychecks and getting this done. Now were up tothepoint where were going to go watch the president give his speech. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer criticized the g. O. P tax proposal