Lawler Wants Meeting With Senate Leaders to Push Higher SALT Cap

Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the most vocal blue-state Republicans, has requested a meeting with Senate leaders to ensure the survival of the increased state and local tax deduction cap included in the House reconciliation measure.

Moderates like Lawler (R-N.Y.) fought to raise the cap to $40,000, which enabled House GOP leaders to win a narrow victory for the tax and spending bill. As the Senate now mulls changes, President Donald Trump has signaled he’s open to a lower cap that’s more popular among conservative senators.

“There’s not a lower number that we’re going to come to an agreement on,” Lawler said at an exclusive Bloomberg Government roundtable Friday. “That is the deal, and that’s going to be the final number or there’s not going to be a bill.”

Lawler said he’s asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to set up a meeting between himself, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and “any senator that needs to be talked to about this issue,” also naming Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Lawler and his fellow blue-state Republicans have a difficult case to make in the Senate: Unlike the House, there are no GOP lawmakers in the Senate from the high-tax states like New York and California that are clamoring for a higher cap.

The issue also could play a key role in the 2026 midterm elections, with Republicans’ ability to hold onto the House majority depending on whether GOP moderates in high-tax Democratic states can get re-elected.

Democrats have hammered vulnerable Republicans like Lawler for their votes in favor of the mega tax and spending bill. Their messaging has focused on some of the bill’s provisions, like tightening work requirements for Medicaid.

“Lawler and his fellow Republicans are ripping away health care from millions of Americans and levying a de facto hidden tax on working-class families,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), who chairs House Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement following the House vote.

But Lawler said voters are comfortable with work requirements and will reward blue-state Republicans for passing tax cuts. That, Lawler said, includes the quadrupling of the SALT deduction from the $10,000 cap included in the 2017 measure signed by Trump in his first term.

“If the economy is moving, if taxes are lower, if businesses are growing, if the stock market is thriving, if these trade agreements come to fruition, then I think the American people are going to be very happy with the overall direction of the economy and the country,” Lawler said.