Monthly Archives: July 2014

What was once considered must pass legislation – to deal with the crisis on the border with Mexico – is now in disarray in both chambers. In the House, Republican leaders are hoping to take a second whack at passing an emergency border-funding package, after they suddenly backed off a planned vote Thursday afternoon amid discontent within their own ranks.

The legislation had been unlikely to advance in the Senate, and already had been ticketed for a presidential veto. But the decision to pull the $659 million measure represented a major embarrassment for Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team—especially for Rep. Steve Scalise. He does not officially become majority whip until Friday, but he and his new whip team had made this the first bill in which they had become actively engaged in vote-gathering.

Last month, the Minnesota Tax Court issued a decision in Johnson v. Commissioner of Revenue, No. 8544–R, 2014 WL 2965410 (Minn. T.C. June 20, 2014), with respect to taxpayers’ exchange of unimproved land for a two-bedroom condominium. Johnson is a ruling of significance for taxpayers hoping to take advantage of Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Section 1031”) as it may apply to their state taxes. 

This week, the Senate easily passed a patch to the soon to be broke Highway Trust Fund. The Senate’s actions, however, don’t end the Highway Drama because the chamber made two critical changes to the legislation passed by the House.

First, by a vote of 71 to 26, the Senate voted for the Wyden-Hatch amendment that substitutes the pay-fors, swapping some of the money raised through pension smoothing for tax compliance instead. Second, and probably most problematic, the Senate voted 66 to 31 to adopt the Carper-Corker-Boxer amendment to only patch the Trust Fund up until December. This would set up another bite at the apple for proponents of a long-term fix in a potential lame duck session after the mid-term elections.