Top Corporate PAC Money Recipient Leads GOP Tax Overhaul
Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the powerful tax-writing committee, took more PAC money from corporations last cycle than any House member since at least 2002.
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As Republicans in Congress craft their budget megabill, the House Ways and Means Committee is at the center of high-stakes decisions on tax policies that could pour billions into corporate pockets. Leading that charge is Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the committee chair and Congress’ top 2024 election cycle recipient of corporate PAC money, including donations from the PACs of giants like AT&T, Duke Energy, and Bank of America that have paid low effective tax rates in recent years and have billions at stake in the pending tax code overhaul.
Smith raked in more than $3.3 million from business PACs during the 2024 election cycle, the most of any House member in any cycle since at least 2002, according to OpenSecrets. Dozens more corporate PACs, including Google, Bank of America, and Anheuser-Busch, continued to cut him $5,000 checks—the annual maximum—in early 2025, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.
The Ways and Means Committee’s portion of the giant reconciliation bill centers on provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Bonus depreciation, letting companies deduct equipment costs upfront, is scheduled to phase out and could cost hundreds of billions to extend. R&D expensing, which is now spread over 5–15 years instead of immediately, may be restored at a cost of $150 billion or more, aiding tech and aerospace firms like Boeing and pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer. The corporate tax rate, which was cut from 35% to 21% by the TCJA, is likely to remain at the new lower level, though some Republicans are calling for pushing it even lower, to 15%, and Smith said last year that some other Republicans are wondering why the idea of raising the rate is not on the table.
These measures would boost corporate profits but risk pushing up the already $30 trillion-plus national debt. The bill’s $2 trillion in required spending cuts, as directed by the House’s 2025 budget resolution, is expected to target Medicaid and SNAP benefits, hitting low-income families the hardest.
The Ways and Means Committee may also be eyeing a corporate wish list of proposals from a leaked January 2025 memo, including repealing the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) corporate alternative minimum tax, a 15% levy on billion-dollar firms whose standard tax liability would be below that rate. During its first year in effect, the corporate alternative minimum tax hit Duke Energy, Whirlpool, and investment firms KKR and Blackstone, according to the Wall Street Journal. Employees of KKR and Blackstone have been reliable donors to Smith's campaigns over the years, giving him $89,000 and $84,000 respectively, and making their companies some of his top donors, according to OpenSecrets' methodology that combines PAC and employee donations. Smith's joint fundraising committee received donations from 16 KKR employees in 2024, combining to give him more than $69,000.
The January memo also proposes scrapping the estate tax, benefiting wealthy business owners, and eliminating the IRA's clean energy tax credits could favor Smith's oil and gas industry PAC donors like Marathon Petroleum, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil, while hurting the renewables sector.
A recent report by Americans for Tax Fairness and Accountable.US spotlighted 10 corporations that rake in an outsized share of U.S. profits while paying low effective tax rates by leveraging loopholes and subsidies from the TCJA. They include banks like Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, technology companies like Comcast and Apple, plus General Motors and Pfizer. All but two of the firms were PAC donors to Smith's 2024 campaign.
Smith also pulls in corporate money through his leadership PAC, which he calls Mr. Southern Missourian in the House. Since the beginning of 2023, Smith's PAC has received more than $2 million combined from hundreds of PACs, according to FEC records, with a donor list that reads like a who's who of the Fortune 500.
The Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee are led by Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who has been one of the top House recipients of corporate PAC dollars for many years. During the 2024 cycle, Neal received more than $2.2 million in from corporate PACs, making him the fourth-highest recipient of such money in the House.
GOP leaders and key committee chairs like Smith are busy working behind the scenes to hammer out their plans for the reconciliation bill, with the House Ways and Means Committee expected to hold a markup as soon as next week to meet House Speaker Mike Johnson's end-of-May vote target. The reconciliation bill is a special package of tax and budget items meant to fulfill the annual budget resolution that can bypass a Senate filibuster and be passed by a simple majority of 51 votes in the upper chamber.
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