Congressional leaders struck a tax-policy deal yesterday, capping a long weekend of negotiations with an agreement that will extend lapsed and expiring tax breaks but won’t be as expansive as many lawmakers had hoped, the Wall Street Journal reported. The extended breaks included incentives for biodiesel producers, which expired at the end of 2017 but would last through 2022 if enacted. A more generous medical-expense deduction for individuals that lapsed at the end of 2018 would run through 2020. A tax credit for short-line railroad maintenance would last through 2022. Breaks for brewers and distillers set to lapse this year would continue through 2020. The measures are being added to a spending bill slated for passage this week before Congress finishes its work for the year. But lawmakers came up short of a broader tax deal that some had sought. As late as Monday evening, they were discussing making some of the tax breaks permanent.
