Republican tensions escalate to a boiling point on 'SALT' tax fight in Trump's big bill

House Republicans are locked in a tense standoff over how to tackle SALT, a sticky issue that could make or break the party's big bill for Trump’s agenda.

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are locked in a tense standoff over how to tackle the federal deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT, a sticky issue that could make or break the party's big bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The ongoing fight has not only pitted Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chair of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, against a determined bloc of House Republicans from high-tax blue states; it has also created divisions between the pro-SALT Republicans, undercutting their negotiating leverage and complicating the path to a deal.

While some of them are willing to accept an offer from Smith to raise the cap to $30,000, another faction flatly rejects that figure as insufficient. And they’ve grown increasingly frustrated with some of their colleagues for, in their view, settling for a low-ball offer.

Those tensions came to a boiling point Tuesday when pro-SALT Republicans met in Speaker Mike Johnson's office to discuss strategy, and asked Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y. — a member of the Ways and Means panel who's supportive of the $30,000 cap — to leave, according to two sources in the room.

“She wasn’t invited and is not part of our negotiation. That’s why she was asked to leave,” said one of the sources in the room, who described the moment on condition of anonymity. “Jason Smith said yesterday it wasn’t his job to negotiate with us, so no one understands why he sent her there.”