Congressional leaders and Trump have said they need to tackle health care before taxes.

In December, House Speaker Paul Ryan set a target of getting a tax overhaul done within the first 200 days of the new administration. Since then, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady and members of Trump's administration, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have repeated that goal.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch, the top tax writer in the chamber, called that deadline into question on Thursday, saying the health-care legislation may delay it.

"It could. It sure could, because it's a very complex debate," Hatch told reporters. "Tax reform is complex, too."

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Thursday there's pressure to move on health care because Republicans can't move onto a tax overhaul or other goals until health care is completed.

"This is so basic to what we've promised over the last few elections," Cornyn said to reporters. "I think if we fail to keep this promise then I think it makes the rest of our work much, much more difficult to accomplish."

'Parallel Tracks'

So far Brady isn't backing down. He told reporters earlier this week that the debate over health care shouldn't delay the tax overhaul.

"From the Ways and Means perspective we're staying right on the same track, which is to deliver tax reform this summer," Brady said. "We expect action in our committee this spring. So we're running parallel tracks. They're both equally important."

Trump said on Feb. 9 that he'd announce a "phenomenal" tax plan in the next "two or three weeks." He hasn't yet released a plan. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday the president intends to "get a lot done this year" on taxes.

Last week, Mnuchin said during an interview on Fox Business that completing a rewrite of the tax code by August was aggressive, but realistic.

"I think there's a likelihood of it happening later this year, but less than 50% — I wouldn't bet money on it," said economist Kyle Pomerleau, director of federal tax projects at the conservative Tax Foundation. "Plus, they haven't seen any legislative language of a tax reform bill, so there's nothing to debate yet."

The House GOP tax plan includes a border-adjusted tax concept that's facing intense opposition. The measure, which would replace the corporate tax rate of 35 percent with a 20% rate applied to companies' domestic sales as well as imported goods, is under attack from import-heavy industries such as retail and automakers.

Steve Gates, a board member of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, which opposes the border-adjustment plan, met Thursday with McConnell's staff members. He said they told him "there's so much going on that perhaps nothing would occur this year."

"The people that I met with were certainly familiar with border adjustment but certainly were not ready to commit," said Gates, who owns car dealerships in Kentucky. "I heard a couple of times maybe that they were looking forward to hearing something from the executive branch."

Bloomberg News

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.