Congress is beginning work on something Hollywood has wanted for years: a federal production incentive designed to compete with the tax credits offered by other countries and individual U.S. states.
Lawmakers are drafting legislation that would create a 20% federal incentive for qualifying film and television production, with additional bonuses that could bring the total benefit as high as 30%, according to reporting first published by Variety.
The proposal is being developed on a bipartisan basis. Rep. Nathaniel Moran, a Texas Republican, and Rep. Linda Sánchez, a California Democrat, are among the lawmakers working on the bill through the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Laura Friedman, a Democrat whose district includes Burbank, has also been involved in efforts to create a federal incentive.
The legislation could be introduced this month.
Why Washington is getting involved
For decades, film and television production has been shaped by incentive competition. Georgia, New York, New Mexico and other states use tax credits to attract productions, while countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia offer national programs that can make shooting abroad materially cheaper.
The result is that a production that looks “Hollywood” on screen may employ crews, rent stages and spend much of its budget somewhere else.
President Donald Trump pushed the issue back into the federal agenda late last month, calling on Congress to pass a production incentive to keep entertainment jobs in the United States. The Washington Post reported that actor Jon Voight had advocated for the idea in discussions with the president.
A federal credit would change the incentive map
A national incentive would not necessarily replace state credits. Depending on how the bill is written, productions could potentially combine federal support with state-level programs, making some U.S. locations substantially more competitive with overseas destinations.
That would matter far beyond studios and actors. Film production spending flows through sound stages, equipment rentals, construction crews, visual-effects firms, caterers, hotels, transportation companies and thousands of freelance workers.
Supporters argue that an incentive could keep more of that economic activity inside the country. Critics are likely to focus on cost, whether subsidies actually change long-term production behavior and how benefits would be distributed among studios, independent productions and local workers.
The details will decide whether it works
The headline percentage is only part of the story. Eligibility thresholds, labor requirements, caps, transferability, bonus structures and whether streaming projects qualify can dramatically change the value of a production incentive.
Those choices will also determine which parts of the entertainment industry benefit most.
What is already clear is that the federal government is moving closer to treating film and television production as an industry worth competing for directly, rather than leaving that fight almost entirely to states.
If the bill advances, Hollywood’s production geography could become a federal economic-policy question for the first time in a much bigger way.