Congressman Fong Joins House Ways and Means Committee Reagan Library Field Hearing on Local Benefits of One Big Beautiful Bill

Today, Congressman Vince Fong (CA-20) participated in a House Ways and Means Committee Field Hearing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, to highlight the transformative impact of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB) on small businesses, family farms, and the future of American innovation. Local farmers, ranchers, and small business owners testified before committee members to emphasize how the OBBB’s permanent pro-growth tax relief will protect jobs, drive new investment, and fortify both California’s economy and the broader American economic landscape.

During the hearing, Congressman Fong highlighted how the Central Valley, which is the top agricultural producing region in California, will benefit from the One Big Beautiful Bill permanently doubling the Death Tax exemption. He also discussed how the immediate R&D expensing included in the One Big Beautiful Bill will accelerate technological innovation, including within the aerospace industry which will assist California’s efforts to battle devastating wildfires.  

You can watch Congressman Fong’s opening remarks, as well as his questions to the hearing’s witnesses, here. You can watch the field hearing in its entirety here.

Please see below for highlights on how different provisions within this legislation empower California’s 20th District:

To support families, workers, and seniors:

• Prevents the largest tax increase in American history by making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, protecting the average Central Valley taxpayer from an 18% tax hike or the equivalent of a $3,108 average annual tax increase per family
• Provides historic tax breaks for low-and-middle-income seniors with $6,000 of additional tax relief.
• Boosts the Child Tax Credit to $2,200 and provides every eligible newborn baby with $1,000 in an investment account.
• Strengthens the Paid Family and Medical Leave Credit by quadrupling the maximum Employer-Provided Childcare Credit and adding additional relief for small businesses providing childcare.
• Expands 529 education savings accounts to empower American families and students to choose the education that best fits their needs, whether it is K-12 materials or obtaining a postsecondary trades credential.
• Eliminates most taxes on tips, overtime pay, and car loan interest. 

To support farmers and ranchers:

• Makes permanent and increases the Death Tax exemption, helping ensure 3,244 local family farms and ranches can be passed down to the next generation.
• Includes a $1 billion investment into water storage and conveyance, allowing for drought-stricken states like California to make significant infrastructure improvements to our canals and reservoirs ensuring that more water is efficiently delivered to the farmers and communities that grow our nation’s food supply.
• Injects $285 million into the Supplemental Agricultural Trade Promotion Program every year from 2027 onward.
• For every one dollar invested into programs like MAP, estimates project that this will create over $20 in export revenue for American farmers.
• Includes long-term funding for programs like the Specialty Crop Block Grants, which is extremely important for supporting California’s agricultural industry as our state produces over 75% of our nation’s fruit and nuts.  

To support job creators and small businesses:

• Makes permanent the 199A small business deduction to 20%, protecting nearly 42,000 local small businesses.
• Makes permanent and increases the Death Tax exemption for 41,690 local small businesses so they can be passed down to the next generation.
• Increases the 179 Small Business Expensing to $2.5 million, allowing small businesses to invest in their employees and grow.
• Makes permanent the successful Opportunity Zone program by spurring an additional $100 billion of investment over the next decade, makes important enhancements for Zones in rural distressed communities.
• Renews 100% immediate expensing, incentive for research & development in the U.S., and deduction for interest expenses, and supporting the expansion of new production factories and growing manufacturing operations in America by allowing for expensing improvements to existing factories, and other production facilities.