Rep. Young Kim, R-California, and Haley Haley Stevens, D-Michigan, reintroduced bipartisan legislation to recognize accounting as a STEM field like other science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related subjects and enable K-12 STEM funding to be used for accounting awareness and education. 

The legislation, known as Accounting STEM Pursuit Act of 2025 (H.R. 2911), has been backed by the American Institute of CPAs, which has long advocated for recognizing accounting as a STEM subject and supported similar legislation in 2021 and 2023.

“STEM educational opportunities are vital to our economy and national security, helping students get good paying jobs and boosting our nation’s competitiveness,” Kim said in a statement Tuesday. “Accounting is a STEM field important to all U.S. industries, and building a CPA pipeline is more important than ever in our dynamic, 21st century economy. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan bill to uplift students with the skills they need to contribute to our workforce and support our future economy.”

Proponents hope the bill will pass this time and encourage more young people to pursue accounting careers.

 ”Quality, accessible STEM education is the path to a good paying job and all students should have access to it,” Stevens stated. “That’s why I am introducing the Accounting STEM Pursuit Act of 2025, which will introduce students to opportunities in the accounting profession early on to strengthen the future of this vital industry and ensure that accounting, a field increasingly intertwined with technology, is accessible to all students.” 

The AICPA noted that over time, technology has evolved and many professions, including accounting, have evolved with it. Digital technology tools are automating and improving many old accounting tasks, opening up avenues for more creative work such as data analysis, advising on business decisions and hunting down fraud. STEM recognition for accounting at the K-12 level, in tandem with the potential for existing STEM K-12 federal funding to be used for accounting awareness and education, would affirm that the accounting profession is qualified to assess the technological world businesses are in today and expose a larger cross-section of students to potential careers in accounting, while growing the profession’s pipeline.

“For years, STEM curriculum has been a driving force in our education system, providing students with the education needed to develop critical skills that will allow them to compete in a global economy. Accounting has always embodied the values of STEM education, and we believe now is the time to recognize accounting as a STEM curriculum,” said Susan Coffey, CEO of public accounting at the AICPA, in a statement. “STEM recognition for accounting will help expose students from all backgrounds to the profession, strengthen the accounting pipeline and provide increased opportunities for students in various communities. We thank Representatives Kim and Stevens for their leadership and dedication on this issue and urge members of Congress to support this legislation.”

Republicans in the White House, Senate and House are drafting analyses on how best to craft a new tax bracket for the wealthiest Americans, work that signals the GOP under President Donald Trump is seriously considering ideas to raise taxes on the rich.

The House proposal would set the new rate at 40% for taxpayers earning $1 million or more a year, according to people familiar with the proposal. Economic policy aides in the Senate and the Trump administration have been studying the idea as well, according to people briefed on the work. 

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Trump is open to the idea of a new top tax bracket. However, the person emphasized that the higher rate should kick in at a threshold far greater than $1 million.

“We are investigating and having discussions with Congress about a variety of potential offsets,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said Tuesday at an event in Washington, noting that there are “many, many ideas” being studied to minimize the total cost of the tax bill though no decisions have been made.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview Monday with Bloomberg News that “everything is on the table” with regards to the tax bill. 

A Senate Finance Committee spokesperson declined to comment. Representatives for the White House and the House Ways and Means Committee did not immediately provide comment.

The discussions about a new tax bracket for millionaires come as Republicans are looking for ways to pay for a sweeping tax bill by the end of 2025 when several of Trump’s first-term cuts expire. The current top tax rate is 37% for individuals earning more than $626,350 a year.

The higher rates on top earners could be a way to offset the cost of an expanded state and local tax deduction, a popular and politically important tax break for swing district Republicans in New York, New Jersey and California, one person said. 

The SALT deduction benefits skew toward higher-earners, so offsetting the cost with a millionaires bracket would serve a way to minimize the tax savings flowing to wealthy Americans in the bill. Republicans are considering expanding the SALT cap from $10,000 to as high as $25,000 per person.

Trump, in addition to renewing his 2017 cuts for households and privately held businesses, wants to pass campaign proposals, including eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay, and creating new deductions for seniors.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to make his wish list come true, while putting some limits on the boost to budget deficits.not supported.

Pass-through problem

Raising the top tax rate is likely to spark some backlash from business owners of partnerships, LLCs and other pass-through entities who pay their company tax bills based on the individual rates in the tax code. Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said Congress should put in limits on a top tax bracket to reduce levies of those privately held companies.

A new millionaire rate would also be an extraordinary break from Republican orthodoxy which has long espoused the idea of no-new-taxes. 

Groups including Club for Growth and Americans for Tax Reform have spent years from powerful perches in Washington making sure Republicans did not raise taxes. But the party has changed under Trump and has taken on a more populist bent embracing ideas that were once taboo.

Still, there are swaths of the Republican Party opposed to the idea.

“It’s not going to happen,” Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist said on Tuesday, speaking at an event before Faulkender. House leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have also downplayed the idea, saying they are looking for ways to cut — not raise — taxes.

“We’ll have to see,” Johnson said last week when pressed by a reporter.  

Benjamin Krain/Photographer: Benjamin Krain/Get

Individuals and businesses in all of Tennessee and Arkansas who were affected by severe storms, tornadoes, flooding and, in Tennessee, by straight-line winds that began on April 2, now have until Nov. 3 to file various federal individual and business returns and make tax payments.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; individuals and households that reside or have a business in Tennessee’s 95 counties or the 75 counties of Arkansas qualify for it. The current list of eligible localities is on the IRS Tax Relief in Disaster Situations page.

The relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred from April 2, 2025, through Nov. 3, 2025. Affected individuals and businesses will have until Nov. 3, 2025, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period, including:

• Individual income tax returns and payments normally due on April 15, 2025.
• 2024 contributions to IRAs and health savings accounts for eligible taxpayers.
• Quarterly estimated tax payments normally due on April 15, June 16 and Sept. 15, 2025.
• Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on April 30, July 31 and Oct. 31, 2025.
• Calendar-year corporation and fiduciary returns and payments normally due on April 15, 2025.
• Calendar-year tax-exempt organization returns normally due on May 15, 2025.

Penalties for failing to make payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after April 2 and before April 17, 2025, will also be abated if the deposits are made by April 17, 2025.
The Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief for Individuals and Businesses page has details on other returns, payments and tax-related actions qualifying for relief during the postponement period. 

The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record in the disaster area. These taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get this relief.

An affected taxpayer may not have an address of record in the area because, for example, they moved to the area after filing their return. If an affected taxpayer in those circumstances receives a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the agency for the postponement period, the taxpayer should call the IRS Special Services at (866) 562-5227 to update their address and request disaster tax relief. 

(Read more: Areas across the country qualify for natural disaster-related tax relief.)

In addition, the IRS will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period are in the affected area. Taxpayers qualifying for relief who live outside the disaster area need to contact the IRS Special Services toll-free number above. This also includes workers providing relief activities and who are affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization.

Disaster area tax preparers with clients outside the disaster area can choose to use the Bulk Requests from Practitioners for Disaster Relief option, which is described on IRS.gov. 

Individuals and businesses in a federally declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can choose to claim them on either the return for the year when the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2025 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year (2024). Taxpayers have up to six months after the due date of their federal income tax return for the disaster year (without regard to any extension of time to file) to make the election. For individual taxpayers, this means Oct. 15, 2026. (Read more on personal casualty loss deductions.)

Write the FEMA declaration number — 3625-EM for Tennessee, 3627-EM for Arkansas — on any return claiming a loss.