What Happened?

Congress is out of town until after the election, but House Republicans took their pitch for last year's tax law to a Memphis suburb. Seven Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee held a field hearing Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Orgill Innovation Center in Collierville, Tenn., The Daily Memphian reported. Its title: "The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Delivering For Small Business, Manufacturing, And Working Families." [](#ngr-41c8ac52-435d-406f-8662-3cdb16834e93)

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4, 2025, extended earlier tax cuts and added new breaks for tips, overtime pay and some auto-loan interest, according to a Legis1 report on the hearing. The committee held similar hearings in Las Vegas and Simi Valley, Calif., in July 2025.

Why Does It Matter To Me?

If you own a sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation or family farm, the fight here is over how much of your business income escapes federal tax. The law kept the deduction those pass-through owners can take at 20% of qualified business income. Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN), whose district includes Collierville, used the hearing to promote his Small Business Tax Cut Act, introduced April 23, which would raise it to 23%.

Wade Thomson, owner and president of Thomson Prestress, said his companies have invested, committed or budgeted more than $6 million and hired about 50 people since the law passed. "Businesses do not grow on generous rules. They grow on predictable ones," he said.

Both Sides, Now

Republicans used the hearing to promote the law ahead of the Tuesday, Nov. 3, midterms, according to a Bloomberg Government report. No Democrats sat on the panel. "Unfortunately, we don't have the other side of the aisle here representing because you do get different types of questions asked," said Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV).

Critics focus on the cost. The law adds a net $3.4 trillion to federal deficits from 2025 through 2034, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate. A Congressional Research Service overview cites a CBO estimate that one provision shifting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) costs to states may end food benefits for an average of 300,000 people a month over that span.

What Happens Next?

Kustoff's bill won't move soon. The House left Sept. 16 and the Senate left Oct. 2, and both return Monday, Nov. 9, for a post-election session, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reported.

The Senate has already rejected 23% once. "The Senate does the Senate, and they reduced it down to 20 percent," said Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), who chairs Ways and Means. The rest of the law stays in place unless Congress passes new legislation to change it.

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