Cortez Masto still favors stalled social spending package

WASHINGTON — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, working through her committees and position in Senate Democratic leadership, said she has stripped several tax increases out of the proposed Build Back Better Act that would hurt Nevada families, residents and businesses.

Cortez Masto, D-Nev., touted those achievements before U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., appeared on Sunday to doom passage of the $2 trillion social spending bill, considered the lynchpin of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have vowed to bring the bill up next year. Cortez Masto’s office said she will evaluate provisions to expand prekindergarten education and expand Medicare eligibility after she reviews the final draft of the bill and its costs.

She also claims that she stripped out tax hike proposals that would unfairly burden the mining industry, levy a vaping tax and an increase that would hurt family farmers and ranchers.

“I’ve worked really hard on behalf of Nevada to make sure that my focus going in on this bill was looking out for Nevadans to make sure we were focused on lowering costs and delivering middle-class tax cuts,” Cortez Masto said in an interview with the Review-Journal.

Cortez Masto — the first Latina elected to serve in the Senate — also supported deportation protections for undocumented immigrants and an eventual path to citizenship for those brought here illegally as children, provisions ruled out of order last week by the Senate parliamentarian.

But it was Manchin’s announcement that he would withdraw from negotiations with the White House and would not vote for the Build Back Better Act that has appeared to doom the spending bill, denying Democrats a simple majority to approve the legislation in a 50-50 Senate.

Political fallout

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said Manchin’s decision would hurt vulnerable Democrats in New Hampshire, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado who supported the Build Back Better Act, which the group called a spending giveaway to special interests as inflation spikes.

“It’s a nightmare before Christmas for (New Hampshire U.S. Sen.) Maggie Hassan, (Georgia U.S. Sen.) Raphael Warnock, (Arizona U.S. Sen.) Mark Kelly, Catherine Cortez Masto and (Colorado U.S. Sen.) Michael Bennet who went out on a limb to support trillions of dollars in new inflation-inducing spending and massive tax hikes on middle-class families and job creators only to have the rug pulled out from under them,” said Chris Hartline, the group’s spokesman, in a statement.

In the interview with the Review-Journal, Cortez Masto said she embraced many of the social programs in the bill, but bucked Democratic leaders and the president on some of the tax proposals claiming they would unfairly hurt Nevadans.

“I stood up and said they would not have my support,” Cortez Masto said.

For example, Cortez Masto said she got a vaping tax eliminated from the Senate version of Build Back Better Act because it was regressive. She said it would have disproportionately burdened middle- and low-income residents who purchase vaping products.

Other tax hikes eliminated

She and Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, also opposed a tobacco tax proposal sought by the administration. And Cortez Masto joined with other lawmakers from Western states including Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to urge Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to scratch a provision that would have altered how property value is calculated upon death that could have resulted in higher taxes.

“I was hearing from so many of our family farms and ranches,” said Cortez Masto, who explained that higher taxes on the property would burden families seeking to pass down small agrarian and livestock businesses through inheritance.

Tester threatened to vote against the bill if the provision was included.

And Cortez Masto opposed a proposed mining royalty tax that drew the ire of Nevada mining companies, who testified that the levy would be a burden on the industry, especially after the Nevada Legislature passed a tax increase in May to support education. A federal tax would double the amount paid to governments.

Cortez Masto won assurances from Manchin that the provision would not be in the final bill. The action was applauded by mining executives, as well as Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, whose congressional district includes Northern Nevada mining communities.

Some environmental groups criticized the move as one that benefits moneyed interests over public lands.

Patrick Donnelly, the Nevada director for the Center for Biological Diversity, supports the royalty tax as a tool to curb pollution and hold mining companies accountable for degradation.

“Senator Cortez Masto is doing the mining industry’s bidding in Washington while our public lands are under siege here in Nevada,” Donnelly said. “There’s also this puzzling political question — who is she trying to please? Does she think she’s going to win mining-rich Elko County next November?” Donnelly said.

Elko has historically voted Republican, even after Cortez Masto’s predecessor, Harry Reid, consistently opposed changes to federal mining laws as well.

Negotiations continuing

Despite the blow delivered by Manchin, Biden and Schumer said they would continue to push for passage of the Build Back Better Act next year. Without Manchin or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who has also opposed provisions of the bill, Democrats would need Republican support.

Senate GOP lawmakers have been united in opposition to the spending package.

Currently, the bill would expand Medicare, provide free prekindergarten education, lower prescription drug prices for seniors and combat climate change, and give tax relief to working families with children.

“There is so much in it that is a benefit to Nevada,” Cortez Masto said.

Nevada is one of the poorer states in the nation. It also has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates following the coronavirus pandemic. Nevada has a mean income of $60,365 per household, and 12 percent of the state’s 3 million residents live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census figures.

Included in the legislation is an extension of the child tax credit that has helped lower-income families cope with the crippling economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which closed schools and day care centers and left many without jobs.

The timing of the vote means little, Cortez Masto said last week.

“Timing to me is not the issue,” she said. “It’s about getting it done.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.

A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said she favors provisions in the current version of the Build Back Better Act to expand prekindergarten programs and Medicare eligibility. The senator’s office said she will evaluate those provisions after she reviews a final draft of the bill and its costs.