On Tuesday afternoon, 43 members of the House of Representatives will take their seats in an ornate committee meeting room in the Longworth House Office Building across the street from the Capitol to begin the process of rewriting America’s tax code. As those lawmakers sit and debate and vote for hours on end, there are four representatives who will loom over the room like a cloud — all of whom are from the Empire State. 

Welcome to Washington, where this week the tax portion of President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” will be written by House lawmakers. Beginning on Tuesday at two o’clock in the afternoon, members of the Ways and Means Committee will begin the process of shaping the tax code. Responsibility for initiating tax legislation rests in the lower chamber of Congress because of the Origination Clause of the Constitution, which states: “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”

The committee has been told to reduce revenues by as much as $4 trillion through making Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, as well as including new breaks for lower-wage employees, homeowners, and those who live in higher taxed states. There are countless items on the agenda for what is known as a “markup” of a committee bill.

On Monday, committee leadership is expected to release the text of the initial legislation, which will then be showered with amendments as the chairman, Congressman Jason Smith, works with fellow Republicans to craft a bill that can win 217 votes in the House and at least 50 votes in the Senate. 

The House currently has two vacancies in heavily Democratic seats, meaning that Speaker Johnson can afford to lose only three of his 220 members on final passage of the bill. Four New York Republicans, however, are ready to nix the bill no matter what Messrs. Johnson and Trump say. 

For weeks, the four lawmakers — Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Congressman Andrew Garbarino, Congressman Nick LaLota, and Congressman Mike Lawler — have been threatening to sink the tax law if a substantial increase in the State and Local Tax deduction cap is not included. On Friday, all four lawmakers signed a statement saying that increasing the cap to $30,000 from $10,000 is “insulting” to New Yorkers.

The cap on the SALT deduction, which was instituted as part of the 2017 tax cuts signed by Mr. Trump, was so offensive to New Yorkers that even Ms. Stefanik herself — a short-lister for the vice presidency and would-be ambassador to the United Nations — voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act despite her MAGA bona fides. 

“The Speaker and the House Ways and Means Committee unilaterally proposed a flat $30,000 SALT cap — an amount they already knew would fall short of earning our support,” Ms. Stefanik wrote alongside Messrs. Garbarino, LaLota, and Lawler on Friday. “It’s not just insulting — it risks derailing President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.”

This past week, Mr. LaLota told us reporters in the Speaker’s Lobby, just off the House floor, that he and his New York colleagues — along with other lawmakers from New Jersey and California — were, if their constituents fail to get a bailout, prepared to go to war, so to speak, and vote against the “one big beautiful bill.” 

He refused to say what his “floor” for a SALT cap would be, but he made clear that if the speaker does not accede to New Yorkers’ demands, they are prepared to revolt. “What we recognize is that our strength is in numbers, and the more we stick together, the more we’ll be able to answer the call,” Mr. LaLota told us. 

Mr. LaLota further said that any kind of short-term deal — like a cap increase for one or two years — would not be acceptable. “What happens in year three?” Mr. LaLota asked rhetorically. “If it goes back to $10 [thousand], then it doesn’t add much value.”

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is set to expire at the end of the year, setting a hard deadline for Mr. Johnson, Senator Thune, and the president to get something done before December 31 in order to avoid a multitrillion-dollar tax increase on Americans of all incomes.

For New York suburban Republicans, however, the expiration of the 2017 tax bill could be a boon for their voters. Should Congress fail to pass the “one big beautiful bill,” the SALT deduction cap will be abolished entirely — shunting billions of dollars in tax benefits to blue-state homeowners.