Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the Russell Senate building. (Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg)
Attempting to reverse President Donald Trump's payroll tax deferral order, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are pressing the Government Accountability Office to determine whether the recent Treasury Department and IRS guidance implementing the order is a "rule" under the Congressional Review Act.
The act allows Congress to undo rules issued by federal agencies via a joint resolution of disapproval in the Senate.
"President Trump's plan at best gives no help to workers and at worst saddles lower to middle-income Americans with a tax bill the Treasury Department has said will have to be repaid by April next year," Schumer and Wyden said Wednesday in a letter to GAO.
Under Trump's presidential executive order issued Aug. 8, employers can defer the 6.2% tax for employees whose taxable wages are less than $4,000 during a bi-weekly pay period — equivalent to roughly $104,000 annually — from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.
Rep. John Larson, D-Ct., chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, said the same day that he plans to introduce legislation to "overturn" Trump's payroll tax deferral and work with the Senate to initiate a Congressional Review Act resolution.
