Fasten Your Seat Belts for Bumpy Ride as New Tax, Government Funding Bills Make Their Way on Capitol Hill

March 11 Congressional Family Business Caucus Gives Family Business Leaders a Front Row Seat to Tax Changes Coming

It’s going to get bumpy on Capitol Hill next month, so fasten your seat belts.

A slight paraphrasing of Betty Davis’ famous line in the movie, All About Eve, but I think as we approach this year’s first Congressional Family Business Caucus, Congress’ writing of the new tax bill, and the March 14 deadline for funding the government, it’s fair warning.

Next month’s Congressional Family Business Caucus, held March 11, will find itself in the middle of the new Congress’ first real test to keep the government operating while at the same time finalizing the final drafts of both the House and Senate new tax bill proposals.

These two issues are among many “firsts” being tackled as we all enter the final leg of the much watched and covered “First 100 Days” of the Trump Administration.

Many of our family business owners and leaders will be in the center of this storm during the bipartisan breakfast Caucus meeting, hearing directly from Congressional Family Business Caucus Co-Chairs, other House Members, and experts.

The Congressional Family Business Caucus was formed three years ago and is a bipartisan, educational Caucus intended to bring awareness to the issues facing family businesses.

Last year, the Caucus was co-chaired by Reps. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). It has approximately 50 members and, with each new Congress it is hopeful that co-chairs will be announced soon. We hope to have a similar bipartisan Caucus in the Senate. We will have an update for you in our next report.

In a meeting room at the Capitol, we will hear updates on the rapidly changing “State of Legislative Play” from our Washington, D.C., insiders at the law and government relations firms of Brownstein and Squire Patton Boggs.

In addition, we’ll get a strategic read on how to communicate effectively on key family business issues from our communications expert, Dr. Frank Luntz. This will be followed by actual in-person meetings with key House members and their staffs to discuss critical issues affecting family businesses, family offices and successful individuals.

The general theme of this first Congressional Family Business Caucus is focused on women-owned family businesses.

Top women business leaders attending include Debbie McKee of Little Debbie Cakes, Cheryl Osborn of Casco Contractors, and Global 1^st Flagship’s Sherri Bovino.

Women-owned businesses represent nearly 40% of all U.S. businesses — more than 14 million businesses in total – and account for $2.7 trillion in revenue, according to Wells Fargo Bank’s 2024 “Impact of Women-Owned Business Report.” 

As part of the tax writing process, we at Family Enterprise USA and Policy and Taxation Group also submitted a statement for the Congressional record detailing the need for family businesses, family offices, and successful individuals to rely on consistent, permanent tax policy.

In our statement to the House Ways and Means Committee, its Tax Team co-chairs and members, and all members of Congress, we asked that they take into consideration the following key positions on tax policy priorities: 

• Lower the top income tax rate and personal income taxes
• Lower the estate tax levels and increase lifetime exemption
• Decrease the top capital gains tax rate
• Continue 199A for pass-through entities
• Restore R&D expensing
• Continue like-kind exchanges and accelerated depreciation
• Eliminate consideration of wealth tax or surtax on income
• Continue valuation of discounts for estate tax purposes
• Continue grantor trusts
• Avoid elimination of step-up in basis
• Restore bonus depreciation

We have also communicated these issues directly to all Tax Team Member Chairs in person, and we will speak directly to them, during our March 11 meetings on Capitol Hill.

The View Inside

While we all receive news feeds on our phones, computers, social media, and coverage in traditional media, there’s nothing like being on Capitol Hill speaking directly with our legislative leaders, and with real insiders.

Recently, I spoke with Caren Street, principal and legal expert at the law and government-relations firm Squire Patton Boggs, and Mark Warren, shareholder and legal expert, at the law and government-relations firm Brownstein.

Street has 17 years of experience on Capitol Hill and in government relations while Warren has worked on every major tax-policy debate since the Clinton administration. He also contributed to the development and drafting of key parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) as senior tax counsel in the office of Sen. John Thune (R-SD). 

Both agree more policy gyrations and negotiation acrobatics are inevitable between the tax writers in the House Ways and Means Committee, it’s 10 Tax Teams, the tax writers in the Senate, and ultimately what the White House will sign.

But we need to put the tax bill aside, for the moment, according to Street and Warren. The first real issue the new Congress faces is the bipartisan funding of the government by March 14.

“This will probably need to be bipartisan,” Street, a Democrat, says. Warren, a Republican, agrees.  Both also agree it will not be an easy journey.

Warren says, “tax and reconciliation bills move on their own tracks.” And this may take longer than anyone expects. “But first,” he says, “the government has to be funded.”

When it comes to the tax fight, Street believes the more than $4 trillion cost of the TCJA extensions will “push Democrats away, and so it won’t be a bipartisan issue.” But, she believes, the longer the approval process drags on, “the more bipartisan it will become.”

Warren, however, sees some bipartisan hope, with “eleven Democrats willing to work with Republicans.” But Warren does also agree with Street on one thing: “This will all be incredibly difficult.”

Slow? Fast? Either way, there has always been one truism on Capitol Hill.

Nobody in Congress wants to go home in January 2026 and explain why their constituents’ taxes have gone up.

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