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Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Madam President, I want to start out by thanking my dear friend and colleague Senator Cortez Masto for leading the effort to fix this terrible provision.

I have to say I am extremely disappointed in what just happened. Senate Republicans are, once again, showing that they couldn't care less about the impacts of their new extreme law.

Last week, President Trump signed into law Republicans' disastrous ``Big Beautiful Betrayal,'' which, among all the terrible cuts to healthcare, to food assistance, and all of the rest, the ``Big Beautiful Betrayal'' included a damaging provision that will impose a higher tax burden for people who play games at casinos--casinos not just in Nevada but all around this country--and lose money.

You heard that right. Under Republicans' new law, individuals who play blackjack or poker while they are on vacation or wherever they are at--any other games at casinos--will now owe taxes to the government on the money that they lost. That is because Republicans' extreme law placed a new limit on the amount of gaming losses that Americans can deduct.

What does this actually mean? It means if someone wins a big jackpot in Las Vegas and then loses that jackpot later on, they would still be liable for paying 10 percent in taxes on gaming ``income,'' even though they hadn't brought home anything.

Their loss equaled their win. They had no winnings at all.

How can that be right? How does it make sense? I don't know. It is Senate Republican math. That is what they seemed to use in their ``Big Beautiful Betrayal Bill.'' It is not just bad math; it is bad policy.

What makes it even worse is that Senate Republicans snuck in this provision in this terrible bill so they can collect more money from people so that they can pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires. This is exactly what is happening, and it is shameful.

This is going to hurt people who visit casinos. It is going to hurt Nevada's gaming industry more broadly, which supports nearly a third of the jobs in our State. It generates billions of dollars for our local economy.

That is why Senator Cortez Masto and I agreed that we must pass our FULL HOUSE Act and eliminate this new tax burden.

I am extremely disappointed that Washington politicians are refusing to fix the terrible policy they enacted that is going to hurt my State--our State--and our economy.

We need to restore the full wagering loss deduction and bring fairness back to our tax system. I won't stop working and won't stop pushing until this gets done.

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