The powerful Nevada Culinary Workers Union Local 226—which was quick to call Trump’s announcement a “wild campaign promise"—supports Cruz’s bill. The bill is a “starting point” that could lead to tax relief for tipped workers, said the union’s secretary-treasurer, Ted Pappageorge.

“There is finally an avenue, possibly here with this bill in the Senate, to put a spotlight on the relief” to tipped workers, he said. “They are not tax cheats, they’re willing to pay their fair share of taxes—but it needs to be fair.”