{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=1BE3C2E0-5697-4EDE-97C0-AE30A911BFE7", "What They're Saying About Senator Portman's Efforts to Pass the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act", "2017-12-08", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Rob Portman", "P000449", "www.portman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Last week, with the help of U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), the Senate passed the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, which will help middle-class families and save the typical Ohio family $2,375 annually, create more jobs, and increase wages for American workers. Portman worked throughout the process to develop and help improve the bill, including adding several amendments during consideration by the Senate Finance Committee.\u00a0 And now he\u2019s been appointed to serve on a House-Senate conference committee that is negotiating the final bill.\r\nBelow are highlights of coverage on Senator Portman\u2019s efforts to get the legislation passed in the Senate:\r\n \r\n\u201cWith Senate approval of the most sweeping changes in the federal tax code since 1986, Sen. Rob Portman has moved one step closer to a goal he has talked about relentlessly since he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010. And if overhauling the tax code sparks an economic boom, Portman will emerge as one of the Republicans who will receive credit nationwide for making the tax bill a reality.\u201d \u2014 Columbus Dispatch, December 4, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cNow that the Senate and House have passed their separate tax-cut plans, a select group of lawmakers\u00a0will meet behind closed doors to resolve the differences.\u00a0 Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and booster of the cuts, will be in that group. Republican Senate leaders Wednesday night\u00a0appointed Portman and several colleagues to meet with House of Representatives counterparts, work through their bills' differences and present a final, combined bill for passage in both chambers ... Since last year, Portman has been among a few key senators behind the scenes shaping the tax package, which he says will help most Ohioans keep more of their pay and spur companies to expand and hire.\u201d \u2013 Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 7, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cNot long after the 2016 election, McConnell and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) quietly tapped four Senate Republicans \u2014 Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio, Tim Scott of South Carolina and John Thune of South Dakota \u2014 to be the GOP conference\u2019s point people on the tax battle. The group immediately began meeting in December to lay the groundwork for the legislative push.\u00a0 And after the failure of Obamacare repeal, Republicans were determined to do things differently.\u201d \u2013 POLITICO, December 2, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cThe failure to repeal the health care law provided Senate Republicans a valuable road map of what not to do when pursuing their ambitious tax agenda \u2014 particularly cutting colleagues out of the process. Mr. McConnell and a circle of lieutenants who sit on the finance and budget committees \u2014 Rob Portman of Ohio, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, John Thune of South Dakota and Tim Scott of South Carolina \u2014 joined John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, in relentlessly trying to educate senators.\u201d \u2013 New York Times, December 3, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cMcConnell picked four members of the Finance Committee \u2014 Tim Scott of South Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and John Thune of South Dakota \u2014 to take the lead on the bill, along with Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas. Those members were charged with determining the priorities of others and forging a consensus\u2026. Trump, McConnell and Portman all worked with Maine Sen. Susan Collins, including key promises made by the president when he visited the Capitol on Tuesday for a lunch with GOP senators in which he displayed uncharacteristic familiarity with the measure\u2019s details and had a better read of the room than in prior appearances.\u201d \u2014 Associated Press, December 2, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cPortman\u2019s biggest contribution was to handle the technically difficult task of transforming the U.S. tax system for corporate profits earned overseas into a territorial one. The former U.S. trade representative\u2019s expertise came in handy when GOP leaders were trying to find a way to pay for increasing the deduction for pass-through businesses. They ultimately decided to increase the tax rate on corporate profits held overseas. Portman explained to colleagues the concession would not dampen the economic punch of the bill.\u201d \u2014 The Hill, December 2, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cMcConnell\u00a0pointed to Republican senators\u00a0meeting in small groups for months, and he praised the leadership of Finance Committee members Rob Portman of Ohio, Tim Scott of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania for helping lead the efforts along with Finance Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, and Texas Republican John Cornyn, the majority whip.\u201d \u2013 Roll Call, December 2, 2017\r\n \r\n \r\n\u201cThere are a number of other members who have been critical to the process\u2026 Senators Thune, Portman, Toomey and Scott took on the yeoman\u2019s work in the Finance Committee as we worked to unite our conference on a bill that everyone could support.\u00a0I will never forget the time and energy they put into this effort and can\u2019t thank them enough. My staff calls them the \u2018core four\u2019 of tax reform.\u201d \u2013 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell\r\n \r\nPortman, who has held six tax reform roundtables in Ohio with local business leaders in recent months, has been vocal on the national stage calling for tax reform, including during recent interviews on CBS This Morning, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg TV, and NBC\u2019s Meet The Press twice, as well as recently in op-eds in the Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cincinnati Enquirer.\u00a0 He will continue to make the case for pro-growth tax reform that provides tax relief for middle-class families and improves our economy with more jobs and higher wages.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=1BE3C2E0-5697-4EDE-97C0-AE30A911BFE7"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0500533282756805, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}