We move now to no taxes on tips of federal policies set to make a significant impact in Nevada.

According to a 2024 report from the Tax Policy Center.

Tipped workers make up more than 5% of the state's workforce.

That's nearly three times the national average.

And with tax season wrapping up, volunteer tax preparers at the Nevada Tax Free Coalition say they're seeing several clients benefit.

No taxes on tips is up to $25,000.

So we do get people who come in and get an extra 20,000 like deducted because they have larger tips working on the strip.

So that is it makes a huge difference.

Someone who may be single but has maybe $10,000 worth of tip income gets an extra $10,000 deducted on top of their.

So it does make a difference.

I'm always amazed when I see somebody who's a dealer at a casino, and their tips are more than their wages sometimes, and that's so for those individuals that it's certainly a real benefit.

Well, the other day I did a tax return where the person received, $15,000 in tips, which probably saved them about $1,500.

While the bill is helping some tipped workers, it does have an expiration date.

The no tax on tips, provisions, sunsets in 2028.

And that is just one aspect of the measure that Nevada Congressman Steven Horsford hopes to change.

He joins us now to talk about that and more.

Congressman, welcome back to Nevada Week.

Thanks for having me.

So the legislation that you have introduced is called the Tip Improvement Act.

And if it becomes law, there would be some changes to what it is now in its current form.

Why those changes and what they are.

What are they.

Well, I've always believed that you have to center the workers in any discussion about, the money in their pockets.

This is not about party or partizanship.

It's about pocketbook issues.

And so tip workers I represent here in Southern Nevada, the largest share of tip workers in the country.

And what those tip workers have told me, and I've said to them is get the deduction that you are entitled to based on what was approved in the law last July.

But to be clear, this law doesn't go far enough.

And there are major shortcomings.

For example, the video talked about the $25,000 of deduction that has to be itemized.

Many tip workers don't itemize their taxes in order to get that deduction.

Secondly, it only provides the deduction for one tipped earner in most cases.

Here in Southern Nevada we have two tipped earner households.

They only get $25,000 deduction not the 50,000 like my bill calls for.

met with Leslie, who is a bartender in Las Vegas.

She she said, look, I made those tips and I'm married, but I want to claim that deduction for myself and my benefit.

It's a marriage penalty for her because her husband, her spouse earned more money.

So he claimed the deduction and got the money, not her.

So your change would allow both husband and wife to and to eliminate the the marriage penalty.

It would, address automatic gratuities.

Where now you go to a restaurant or to a banquet?

Gratuities are automatically included.

That's not included in the legislation that was approved last year.

And the biggest issue is it's sunsets.

So the relief is not there to give tipped workers more of their hard earned money back.

You introduced a similar measure in 2024 that died in committee, and I wonder what was the biggest opposition to it that you found?

Well, actually, most of the provisions that I fought for in my bill were included.

I worked with Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, which I'm a member, to include several of my provisions.

Unfortunately, these other areas that I also offered, they left on the cutting board.

That's why we've brought forward the Tips Improvement Act to finish what was left behind in the bill that was passed.

One important aspect of what you're proposing is the elimination of the federal tipped minimum wage.

That is still in effect in many states across the country, not here in Nevada.

Nevada is one of seven states where that's not happening, but what is happening.

A lot of places, restaurant owners are paying about $2 an hour to their servers, with the idea that those servers are going to make the majority of their income off of tips.

So the opposition says if you put that new requirement on to employers, restaurant owners, to pay that increased cost of an hourly wage, they are going to have to make cuts elsewhere, cut other people's pay, or perhaps pass increased costs on to the consumer.

What do you think about that?

How do you respond?

I really appreciate you bringing this up.

Across the country, there are 7 million tip workers who make as little as $2.13 an hour.

That's right, $2.13 an hour.

In fact, that Subminimum wage has not been increased since 1991.

That's the year I graduated high school from Clark High School.

It's a just to me that we have not raised the wages for all workers, but especially for tip workers who are making as little as $2.13 an hour.

Now, the proof that this is not a burden is here in Nevada.

We are one of seven states that pay tipped workers at or above that minimum wage.

And our, restaurants and our establishments are thriving.

Why?

Because when their workers have the money that they need, they provide great hospitality, great service, great food.

It's an experience that's part of what we sell here in Las Vegas.

And when workers are valued, when they're respected, that's how all people can be lifted up.

And that's why my bill calls for an increase of that subminimum wage to the working wage that I call it, the livable wage that families need to to survive and not just to survive, but to thrive in this economy, that it's getting harder and harder and more expensive.

We did have a panel of restaurant owners recently on the show, and some did express that it's been difficult to add that extra wage to pay their servers $12 an hour.

Now, where before it was around 213, I think.

Have you you haven't gotten any of that feed?

Well, and I've met with our restaurant association here and obviously I want all of our businesses and small businesses here in Nevada and Southern Nevada to succeed.

We need them to thrive.

But as we've seen, you can both pay workers what they're worth and make sure that those companies do well.

And one way to do that is by eliminating the sub minimum wage, where workers get paid as little as $2.13 an hour in 2026, a wage that hasn't been raised since 1991.

7 million tipped workers, 70% of them are women, predominantly women of color.

To me, that's unacceptable.

And it's why my bill addresses it.

Okay.

And when we talk about proposed legislation, I imagine there are viewers out there who say, you know, Congress sure hasn't gotten much passed lately outside of must pass funding legislation.

What would you say to those who are dismayed about the likelihood of this bill, even getting out of committee?

Well, my Tips Improvement Act, I'm on the Ways and Means Committee, so I'm going to push every day in every opportunity.

When my colleagues came to Las Vegas and tried to have a hearing to celebrate the one big, beautiful bill, I said, if it's beautiful, let's talk about the elements that got left out And so I'm going to find every opportunity to make this policy more than a slogan, to make it reality and make it work.

with Congress being how it is currently.

How do you find you are most effective right now as a Congress person?

My job is to listen, to listen to the people, to learn from what they are focused on and what their needs are, and then to lift up those concerns and to fight on their behalf one of the things that I've done, I've launched this congressman on the job series where I have been shadowing workers on their job site.

Listening directly to what it is they're facing, not at a town hall, but at their work site, at a break room.

In a union hall.

And what I've found from this experience, whether it's being a stocker in a grocery store, I was a bartender, at a local bar in the Arts District.

I shadowed state workers who are dealing with the work requirement, burden, provisions that are coming out of this bill and other things that I've seen.

We need to value the dignity of work, and we need to respect the worker.

And most importantly, we need to reward work and not just wealth.

That is what I've learned.

That is by listening to my constituents, And those are the people who I fight for every single day because they're the people who make Nevada work.

I want to move to the war with Iran now.

You represent Nevada's fourth congressional district, which includes Nellis Air Force Base, Creech Air Force Base, and Hawthorne Army Depot.

How is this war impacting those military installations, to your knowledge?

Well, first, I want to always start with the service members who put themselves in harm's way every single day to protect our freedoms and the rights that we have as Americans.

And unfortunately, we've already lost, service members in this.

I believe it's a war of choice, that the administration has undertaken without a clear strategy for the long term, without an exit plan, and without putting in the proper coalition so that the United States is not standing alone without our allies with us.

That is a great responsibility to the service members at Nellis and at Creech, and at the Nevada Test and Training Range and Hawthorne, all of whom play a critical role not only in defending our safety here, but all over the world.

What I'm most concerned about at the moment is that in addition to this administration failing to have a strategy, they've now asked for $1.5 trillion, the largest ever budget for the military that the Department of Defense and another $200 billion for bombs for foreign wars, while at the same time they just cut $1 trillion out of health care.

$300 billion out of nutrition assistance programs.

The president just said the federal government can't do one thing for childcare for working people in America, but they can find billions, if not trillions of dollars for foreign wars of choice that put our service members in harm's way.

And so I'm going to continue to do everything I can as I have to make sure that our service members have the tools, the resources, the equipment to to defend and to protect us and themselves.

But as the administration, we need to hold them accountable and not just give them a blank check to to endless wars that the American people simply don't want.

As we speak, it is Tuesday, April 7th, which, according to President Trump in a post on Truth Social, will be, quote, power plant Day and Bridge Day all wrapped up in one in Iran.

This is his threat to the Iranian power plants and bridges strikes from the U.S.

if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.

He posted that on Easter Sunday.

And your fellow congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, responded in part, quote, everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshiping the president and intervene in Trump's madness.

I know all of you and him, and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.

And quote.

She was once a tremendous ally of the president who campaigned on his behalf.

What do you think of how she's describing the president?

Well, I'm not going to use Marjorie Taylor Greene words or her perspective to define my position.

My position is based on a lack of accountability that we're seeing, from my colleagues, my Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate who, quite frankly, are capitulating and bending the knee and without question, are giving this administration a blank check with no accountability or no transparency.

We I've had classified briefings on this subject.

There are things that we've asked in private that they could not answer.

And that to me is alarming.

This we are in a very dangerous moment.

I do agree, that there needs to be, an account of an account for the threat that the United States has now been placed in.

And to be clear, our Iran is dangerous and a dangerous regime that must be held accountable.

I am not excusing that, but the lack of a plan, a military plan with long term, metrics for success and an exit strategy is a failure by this commander in chief.

If you acknowledge that the U.S.

is in a very dangerous moment, then how can you justify continuing not to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, which protects the country?

Well, I have voted to fund all lawful agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA, cyber security and other elements of the Department of Homeland Security that do their job every day to keep our homeland, our domestic homeland, safe.

What Republicans have failed to do is to work to rein in one rogue agency within Homeland Security that has threatened the lives of law abiding U.S.

citizens, and undocumented individuals.

And to me, that is unacceptable, that Republicans refuse to come to the table to negotiate commonsense reforms and accountability measures to make Ice perform like every other state and local law enforcement agency.

We're not asking anything more of Ice and those agents than we expect from Metro or our Nevada State Police.

The bill that is currently in the House from the Senate does fund the rest of DHS, but it excludes Ice and Customs and Border Patrol.

Do you think Customs Border Patrol is important for homeland security?

It is.

And and there is a way to get to.

Yes, but speaker Mike Johnson refused to bring up a bill that was passed unanimously by the Senate in a bipartisan, action.

Instead, he's playing politics and sent over another bill that isn't being brought up by the Senate.

And therefore, Republicans have caused this shutdown, which is now exceeding over 50 days.

Will you be voting yes on that bill from the Senate that's now in the House?

If that bill from the Senate comes to the House and Speaker Johnson brings it up, it will fund all the legal, law abiding aspects of homeland security.

And I would vote yes on that bill.

Thank you for joining Nevada Week, and thank you for watching.