The NAM on “Tax Chats” Podcast: The Impact of H.R. 1

No conversation on recent tax policy would be complete without mention of H.R. 1, the 2025 tax bill the NAM helped deliver, as discussed on a recent episode of the “Tax Chats” podcast.

What’s going on: Last summer’s H.R. 1 “is the investment of a generation in America’s manufacturers,” NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Charles Crain told show hosts (and accounting professors) Scott Dyreng and Jeff Hoopes.

• The legislation—which the NAM championed for more than a year—revived, extended and made permanent pro-growth measures from the NAM-supported 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which brought the corporate tax rate down from 35% to 21% and instituted “a host of additional changes to make it more attractive to invest and grow and to build things here in the United States.”
• Since the law’s passage, the NAM has been focusing on implementation of important pro-manufacturing provisions.

A unifying issue: Manufacturers of all sizes and types supported H.R. 1, Crain said.

• “We had [the] largest of large corporations saying, ‘We need to preserve the [pass-through] deduction because our supply chain is made up entirely of pass-throughs, and we need them to be competitive.’ We have our small family-owned businesses saying, ‘We need to maintain the corporate rate … ’ [E]veryone agrees on the importance of a pro-growth, pro-investment, pro-manufacturing tax code here in the U.S.”
• A competitive tax code for manufacturers means more investment, more jobs and more innovation.

How the NAM did it: The NAM worked hard to bring the firsthand stories of real manufacturers to Congress.

• “[W]e had a lot of really compelling data and stories about why a pro-competitive, pro-U.S., pro-manufacturing tax code is relevant to the 435 members of the House [and] 100 members of the Senate,” Crain said. “We have 14,000 member companies. A whole bunch of them can tell very specific stories of ‘I can’t buy this piece of equipment without bonus depreciation because … I’m a small business. I can’t take on the uncertainty of the cost impact that that’s going to have upfront if I can’t write off those costs.’ Those are really compelling constituent stories.”

The last word: “We felt very strongly that manufacturers’ voices should carry the day,” Crain said. “We’re very thrilled to see that not only were our 10 priorities included in the final bill, but there was actually a bonus 11th issue, the factory deduction, which is limited specifically to manufacturing production facilities. We asked for 10 things, but we got 11—all on the strength of the manufacturing story here in the United States.”

NAM tax advocacy hub: Check out the NAM’s tax policy advocacy resources, including many other stories from manufacturers that benefitted from these policies and NAM’s tax champions in Congress here .