Senate Republicans included a tax break estimated to be worth more than $1 billion for oil and gas producers in their version of President Donald Trump’s sprawling fiscal package. 

The provision would allow energy companies subject to a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax to deduct certain drilling costs when calculating their taxable income. Companies including ConocoPhillips, Ovintiv Inc. and Civitas Resources, Inc. lobbied in favor of it.

The change, included in the legislation released Monday by Republicans on the Senate tax writing committee, is nearly identical to a bill by Republican Senator James Lankford. His home state of Oklahoma is among the top oil and gas producing states.  

Lankford’s bill, called the Promoting Domestic Energy Production Act, would cost the US government $1.1 billion over 10 years, according to the non-profit Tax Foundation, which cited an estimate from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation. 

A representative for Lankford declined to comment. 

Earlier this year, Lankford told CNBC that his bill was necessary to prevent independent oil and gas producers from being squeezed by the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, enacted under former President Joe Biden to prevent corporations from using deductions and credits to pay little or no taxes.

“If we can’t get rid of that entirely we at least need to give some relief to those folks who are independent producers,” Lankford said. “We need to be able to get some relief to them so they’re not constantly worried about it.”

Environmental and watchdog groups including Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen panned the provision included in the Senate bill as a giveaway to fossil fuel companies. 

“This proposal would introduce a massive new loophole for oil and gas companies,” said Lukas Shankar-Ross, deputy director for climate for Friends of the Earth.

Wealthy U.S. colleges scored a win on Monday with the release of Senate Republicans’ tax bill, which would institute a lower tax increase on endowments than what GOP House members have backed. 

Private universities with at least 500 students that have endowments of $2 million per pupil or more would pay an excise tax of 8% under the new bill released by the Senate Committee on Finance. The levy would be placed on net-investment income earned by the endowments. That’s much lower than the 21% rate that was included in the House proposal, which passed the chamber in May.

The endowment tax would raise revenue to offset President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and it would punish universities that are “woke,” in the words of the House tax-writing committee. The White House has frozen federal funding to a number of schools including the Ivy League’s Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. 

Under the new proposal, institutions with endowments of $750,000 to $1,999,999 per student would face a tax of just 4%. Under the House plan, colleges with endowments over $1.25 million per student but below $2 million would pay 14%. Colleges have warned that the House plan would be extremely costly for the schools and take away from financial aid provided to students. 

Religious schools would be exempt from the tax in both the House and Senate proposals. The current levy of 1.4% on the richest colleges was instituted as part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

Karin Johns, director of tax policy for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said the tax should be eliminated and not expanded.

“The tax remains purely punitive, unfairly impacts one sector of higher education, disincentivizes charitable giving, and siphons funds to the federal government used to support students and their families,” she said in an emailed statement. 

A group of tax organizations, including the National Association of Tax Professionals, the National Association of Enrolled Agents, the National Society of Accountants and the National Society of Tax Professionals, has written a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging him to preserve the core tax functions relied on by tax professionals despite cutbacks at the Internal Revenue Service.

In the letter, the groups voiced their concern over reports that over 11,400 IRS employees have left since February, including over 7,000 probationary terminations and 4,000 resignations under the Deferred Resignation Program. These departures amount to approximately 11% of the agency’s workforce and risk disrupting the delivery of vital services. Further cuts are expected later this year and next year as well, although in some cases the IRS has reinstated employees who were terminated amid conflicting court decisions and the demands for tax processing.

“The organizations joining this letter share a deep concern that the recent and ongoing workforce reductions at the IRS will inevitably affect the timely guidance, operational continuity, and practitioner support that the tax system depends on,” said NATP CEO Scott Artman in a statement. “While the full impact may not yet be felt in every area, we know from experience that gaps in communication and support can quickly become burdensome during periods of legislative change and complex filing seasons.” 

The coalition recommended the IRS ensure consistent, timely tax guidance and maintain clear, accessible communication channels for tax professionals, including up-to-date instructions, alerts and procedural tools. It also urged the IRS to accelerate its modernization efforts by investing in digital infrastructure, such as secure portals and automation, to sustain service levels as staffing shifts. The groups also asked the IRS to strengthen its engagement with the tax professional community, by formalizing channels for practitioner input, helping the IRS align field implementation with policy objectives. The NATP and the rest of the members of the coalition are asking Bessent for continued collaboration between the IRS and the tax pro community to ensure stable, effective taxpayer service during the transition period.