Trump’s top advisors discuss tax initiatives at White House summit

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump hosts a lunch with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (L) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R) at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 1, 2017.

Business groups like the RATE Coalition have supported the idea of tax reform, the promise of which has been credited for driving U.S. stock markets higher since Trump’s election last fall.

“We are encouraged by the continued unity from leaders in the Administration and in Congress around the need to fix America’s broken tax code,” the RATE Coalition said in a statement on Tuesday. “Today’s meeting marks an important step towards fulfilling a critical goal to “lower rates for all American businesses so they can compete with foreign ones.”

The six advisors issued a joint statement on their priorities in July and promised to fill in the details later. “The time has arrived for the two tax-writing committees to develop and draft legislation that will result in the first comprehensive tax reform in a generation,” they said in the July 27 statement.

“Our expectation is for this legislation to move through the committees this fall, under regular order, followed by consideration on the House and Senate floors.”

But the letter didn’t specify an exact deadline, and many market watchers have said more recently that Congress may only be able to squeak out some more limited tax cuts in the near term.