Today, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), New Jersey’s only member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, issued the following opening statement at the meeting to consider H.R. 5377, the Restoring Tax Fairness for State and Localities Act, legislation led by Rep. Pascrell to fully restore the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.

Full text of the statement is below. A clip of his full comments can be viewed here.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the time and your leadership. I am gratified that you have brought us together today.  The legislation we are considering is the product of months of hard work by all of us in the SALT Working Group. I particularly want to recognize Mr. Suozzi and Chairman Thompson who have joined me in sponsoring this bill.  It is the product of committee hearings. It incorporates the bedrock elements of my own bill, H.R. 1142. Our meeting today is proof positive that this Congress is fulfilling its commitment, again, to help the middle class.

Last Congress, the middle class was targeted by the majority. The tax scam law of 2017 remains one of the most destructive bills we’ve ever seen because it specifically went after the middle class. The principle way it did this was by capping the state and local deduction.  The SALT cap hit my home state of New Jersey like an anvil from five stories up. The average value of all New Jersey families’ SALT deductions was $19,162 in 2017 – nearly double the cap created by the tax scam.

Imagine that hit, but spread out over millions of households from coast to coast. These are families in New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas – all paying through the nose to fund a big business tax cut. And they not only lost a deduction they relied on, but also the services like education, infrastructure and public safety funded by SALT they depend on.

These families are squeezed enough. Now, right now, is the time to fight for them. This legislation does exactly that. This House delivers results for the middle class and we’re proving it again today.

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