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H.R. 3823: Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2017

Sep 28, 2017 at 11:24 a.m. ET. On Passage of the Bill in the House.

This was a vote to pass H.R. 3823 (115th) in the House.

The bill reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for six months, provides certain tax benefits for victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, reauthorizes certain expiring health programs, and includes provisions to increase the availability of private flood insurance for individuals in flood zones.

Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization—The bill extends the authorization of the FAA and other Federal aviation programs through March 31, 2018 at FY2017 appropriated levels. The bill also extends the collection of aviation taxes, which are deposited in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund and used to fund the agency. The current FAA authorization is set to expire on September 30, 2017.

Reauthorizing Certain Expiring Health Programs— The bill also provides for an extension for several expiring medical programs, including reauthorizing the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program (authorized at $15 million for the first quarter of FY 2018), the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (authorized at $37.5 million for the first quarter of FY 2018), and the Medicare Patient Intravenous Immunoglobulin Demonstration Project through December 31, 2020. The bill reduces the Medicare Improvements Fund by $50 million in order to offset the cost of the short term extensions

The Private Flood Insurance Market Development Act of 2017—The bill updates current law to reinforce and strengthen requirements that flood insurance provided by private sector insurance carriers shall be accepted and considered similar to those polices offered by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to meet mandatory purchase requirements under current law for certain home owners in flood zones.

Tax Relief for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria—The bill provides several temporary tax benefits to individuals affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Retirement Account Tax Provisions--The bill provides an exception to the 10-percent early retirement plan withdrawal penalty for qualified hurricane relief distributions. The bill also allows for the re-contribution of retirement plan withdrawals for home purchases cancelled due to eligible disasters. The bill increases the limit on loans not treated as retirement distributions from $50,000 to $100,000.

Employee Retention Credit for Employers--The bill provides a tax credit for 40% of wages (up to $6,000 per employee) paid by a disaster-affected employer to an employee from a core disaster area.

Charitable Deduction--The bill temporarily suspends limitations on charitable contributions associated with qualified hurricane relief made before December 31, 2017.

Qualified Disaster-Related Personal Casualty Losses Deduction--With respect to losses arising in the disaster area, the bill eliminates the requirement that personal casualty losses must exceed 10% of Adjusted Gross Income to qualify for deduction, and eliminates current law requirement for taxpayers to itemize.

Special Rule for Determining the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit—At the election of the taxpayer, the bill allows individuals to refer to earned income from the immediately preceding year for purposes of determining the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. These credits can increase as income increases up to a certain level for certain taxpayers. Many individuals were not able to work during these Hurricanes and as a result may have a lower income for taxable year 2017.

The bill designates tax relief provisions in this bill as an emergency requirement pursuant to the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Statutory PAYGO) and pursuant to the concurrent resolution on the budget.

Source: Republican Policy Committee

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Totals

All Votes R D
Yea 63%
 
 
264
221
 
43
 
Nay 37%
 
 
155
7
 
148
 
Not Voting
 
 
14
11
 
3
 

Passed. Simple Majority Required. Source: house.gov.

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Notes: The Speaker’s Vote?
The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)
“Aye” or “Yea”?

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The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.

All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.

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Study Guide

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You can find answers to most of the questions below here on the vote page. For a guide to understanding the bill this vote was about, see here.

What was the procedure for this vote?

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    This vote is related to a bill. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is about. Congress makes many decisions in the process of passing legislation, such as on the procedures for debating the bill, whether to change the bill before voting on passage, and even whether to vote on passage at all.

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