On the recordDecember 16, 2015
last night after months of discussion and several weeks of intense negotiations, bipartisan leaders from both the House and the Senate reached an agreement on both the substance and a procedural path forward for legislation that will provide millions of American families and businesses with much needed tax relief and set the stage for comprehensive tax reform in the future. The bill, which we are calling the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act--or PATH Act--of 2015, would make a number of temporary tax provisions permanent, putting an end to the repeated tax extenders exercise that has plagued Congress for decades and giving greater certainty to U.S. taxpayers across the board. There are no two ways about it; this is a historic bill. It is actually the latest in a long line of historic bills we have considered in the Senate this year, and it has quite a bit in common with some of the other efforts we have tackled in 2015. For example, for many years now, much of what we have done in Congress has been dictated by the next deadline, cliff or crisis around the corner. More often than not, the tendency has been to simply kick every can down the road and then give speeches about why we shouldn't do that anymore. This year the Senate has worked to end the practice of governing by crisis.…
