Discharge Petition Filed In Attempt To Force House Vote On Restoring Gambling-Loss Tax Deductions To 100%

[Wandering Eyes]

After watching a bill she filed last July to restore a gambler's right to deduct 100% of losses from gambling winnings languish without consideration in the House Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada on Thursday initiated a discharge petition in an attempt to bypass committee action and force it to a vote before the full Congress.

“My FAIR BET Act has been sitting in @WaysMeansCmte for eight months, despite commitments from @HouseGOP to restore the full gambling loss deduction,” Titus wrote Feb. 12 in a posting on the X social media platform. “I am now filing a discharge petition to bring it to the House floor for a vote.

“Both high-stakes and hobby gamblers are struggling,” Titus continued. “And local economies like [Nevada's First District] that depend on gaming revenue are hurting. We need 218 signatures to bring this commonsense fix to the floor. Call your representatives and tell them to sign on.”

The 2025 Tax Act (aka the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025, reduced the percentage of gambling losses that a taxpayer can deduct from 100% to 90%.

Previously, if a horseplayer won $100,000 and incurred $100,000 in gambling losses during the year, he or she would have been able to fully offset the winnings with losses, resulting in no taxable gambling income.

But under the new rule, a bettor can deduct only 90% of those losses ($90,000), leaving 10% ($10,000) of taxable income, even though that gambler broke even in reality.

This change does not affect 2025 tax year returns that gamblers are now preparing to file. It only applies to gambling wins and losses occurring in and after 2026. Additionally, the deduction is still only available to taxpayers who itemize deductions.

It is unclear if Titus's use of the discharge petition will actually work, or if it will end up serving only as a procedural signifier to underscore her frustrations over being a Democrat trying to pass legislation in a paralyzed U.S. House of Representatives that is narrowly but steadfastly controlled by Republicans.

According to a recent report in Newsweek, the current 119th Congress has produced the lowest legislative output in modern history, passing only a few dozen bills.

Capitol Building | Getty

The House's Ways and Means Committee is chaired by U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri, and the committee's members are Republican over Democrat by a 26 to 19 margin.

The Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over revenue and related issues, has reported on only 15 bills since Titus filed the FAIR BET Act on July 7.

There are at least 58 bills in the queue for Ways and Means consideration according to the committee's web page on Congress.gov.

The FAIR BET Act has 23 co-sponsors (13 Democrats and 10 Republicans).

According to an explanation on Congress.gov, the House discharge rule “provides a means for Members to bring to the floor for consideration a public bill or resolution that has been referred to committee but not reported. Discharge is generally the only procedure by which Members can secure consideration of a measure without cooperation from the committee(s) of referral, the majority-party leadership, or the Committee on Rules. For this reason, discharge is designed to be time-consuming to execute and difficult to accomplish.”

Although discharge petitions were once used only sparingly, they have lately cycled into vogue as a means to circumvent the stalled nature of governance in the U.S. Congress.

But even if a petition does reach 218 signatures, an actual floor vote on the discharge motion isn't automatic. Consideration still depends on the House's schedule and on party leadership decisions.

A report by National Public Radio (NPR) in January described the process this way: “Seldom-deployed in recent decades, the discharge petition is now seeing a surge in use and success.”

According to NPR's research, since 2023, “seven discharge petitions have reached the 218 threshold, the same number as in the previous four decades.”

Titus's discharge petition had been signed by no other legislators as of mid-morning on Feb. 13.

The post Discharge Petition Filed In Attempt To Force House Vote On Restoring Gambling-Loss Tax Deductions To 100% appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article