Congress is currently working on legislation designed to enact the agenda laid out by President Biden in his State of the Union address and the budget for Fiscal Year 2022, which was forwarded to Congress in the spring. After enacting pandemic-relief legislation in early 2021, Congress then moved on to infrastructure legislation, which was approved in the Senate in August and passed the House and now waits in the Senate.

In this two-part article, we look at the proposed tax law changes in the budget reconciliation bill — the major legislation in 2021. The changes may contain key Biden agenda items, including provisions targeting large corporations and high-income individuals, middle-class tax relief, tax incentives and new spending on traditional infrastructure projects and "human" infrastructure initiatives, as well as proposals to address climate change. Negotiations between the White House and Democratic leadership in the House and Senate are ongoing with a target of completing the legislation by the end of the year.