As Congress winds down its 2015 session, the IAFF is leading a last-minute push to delay the tax on high-cost health plans that is scheduled to take effect in 2018. House and Senate leaders are currently negotiating a year-end tax bill, and postponing the effective date of the so-called “Cadillac Tax” is high on the agenda. Despite strong opposition from the White House, key Republican and Democratic leaders have joined together to push for a two-year delay until 2020.  House Ways and Means Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) has indicated he wants to include the delay in a comprehensive bill nicknamed the “extenders” because it extends tax breaks that are due to expire at the end of the year.  

The effort to delay the tax gained momentum last week when the Senate voted 90-10 in favor of an amendment to repeal the Cadillac tax. That vote was largely symbolic because it was added to a bill that President Obama had already vowed to veto, but the lopsided margin demonstrated the strength of opposition to the tax. “Delaying the tax doesn’t solve the problem, but it gives us the time we need to find a permanent solution,” says General President Harold Schaitberger. “In addition, postponing the tax until the next presidential administration means that we are more likely to have a sympathetic ear in the White House.”

The IAFF has long opposed any taxation of employer-provided health benefits and led the opposition to the Cadillac tax when it was first proposed as a way to fund the Affordable Care Act. The IAFF succeeded in delaying the tax until 2018 and reducing the number plans affected, but a smaller version of the tax was eventually included in the final law.

Beginning early this year, the IAFF has worked with allies in both the House and Senate, as well as a diverse group of organizations, to repeal the tax. Four separate bills repealing the tax have been introduced this year and have garnered broad bipartisan support — most notably HR 2050 sponsored by Representative Joe Courtney (D-CT) and S.2045 sponsored by Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

While continuing to fight for a full repeal, the IAFF is focusing this week on a two-year delay before Congress adjourns for the year. In a meeting earlier this week, President Schaitberger made the case for a delay to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and has also pressed House and Senate leaders to accept the delay until 2020.  “This anti-worker tax has got to go,” he says. “And this delay gives us the room we need to get rid of it once and for all.”