Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended efforts by some in her party to include the State and Local Tax deduction (SALT) during her weekly press conference, breaking her silence on the controversy. SALT allows taxpayers to deduct their state and local income taxes from their federal tax bill. The program is especially popular for lawmakers representing Democrat-led states with high state income taxes like New York, New Jersey, and California. SALT has long been a mainstay in the U.S. tax code but was significantly cut by Republicans in 2017. Under Republicans’ 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which the majority-Republican Congress passed through the reconciliation process under President Donald Trump, the SALT deduction remained but was capped at $10,000. Now that they hold Congress, some Democrats are fighting fiercely to raise this cap or remove it altogether. In the original draft of their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, Democrats …