WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday she was confident the U.S. Congress would approve legislation to implement the global corporate minimum tax agreed by 136 countries.
Yellen told ABC’s “This Week” the actions to bring the United States into compliance with the global minimum tax would likely be included in the so-called reconciliation budget bill containing President Joe Biden’s proposed spending initiatives.
Asked whether she was confident the measure would get through, Yellen said, “Yes.”
A group of 136 countries on Friday set a minimum global tax rate of 15% for big companies and sought to make it harder for them to avoid taxation in a landmark deal that Biden said levelled the playing field.
Republican senators have said they were concerned the Biden administration was considering circumventing the need to obtain the Senate’s authority to implement treaties. The parliamentary maneuver known as budget reconciliation would allow Democrats to act without Republican votes.
Under the U.S. Constitution, the Senate must ratify any treaty with a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes. Biden’s fellow Democrats control only 50 seats in the 100-member chamber. Republicans in recent years have been overwhelmingly hostile to treaties and have backed cuts in corporate taxes.
(Reporting by David Lawder and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Chizu Nomiyama)
