Congress
Congress averted a federal government shutdown this week with the House passing a “laddered” measure that funds certain agencies and departments through January 19 next year and others through February 2. The Continuing Resolution or CR passed on a bipartisan basis with 209 Democrats joining 127 Republicans to clear the lower chamber on Tuesday. The following evening the Senate voted 87-11 to send the measure to the President, who will sign it. Included in this CR is a one-year extension of the Farm Bill, which we have noted, includes several provisions incentivizing the use of wood as a building material.
From a tax policy perspective, this week’s development presents a good news/bad news scenario. The good news is that the additional month or so will give tax writers more time to forge an agreement on the business tax extensions that Republicans and the business community support with an expanded child tax credit for which Democrat leaders are advocating. The bad news is that a pre-holiday government funding “cliff” usually serves as an effective impetus for Congressional action on the always contentious tax policy front.
ABMA will continue to meet with legislators and staff to urge our support for enacting a meaningful tax package early in the new year.
Workforce
ABMA picked up some positive intelligence this week in meetings with Congressional staff. Evidently, the House Education and Workforce Committee has reached out to Members of Congress on and off the committee for recommendations on policies/legislation that should be included in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) reauthorization. WIOA is the central statute in federal law that authorizes most of the workforce and apprenticeship programs. It has been up for reauthorization since 2020, when it technically expired but has been kept alive by the annual appropriations process. We have been frustrated by the lack of progress on a WIOA reauthorization bill. The House Education and Workforce Committee held a hearing on WIOA in September which was a positive signal, but there did not seem to be any movement on drafting a bill. ABMA is hearing that the Committee’s goal is to have a WIOA draft bill complete sometime in the second quarter next year. We will be reaching out to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s team to encourage them to submit the Employer Directed Skills Act as a recommendation and will be looking at other bills that are pending for possible submission.
Corporate Transparency Act
ABMA signed a letter that was sent to House and Senate leadership yesterday advocating for postponing implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act. As we noted last week, the CTA imposes reporting requirements on small and medium-sized businesses. While not overly onerous, the penalties for non-compliance are stiff. ABMA joined with about 70 other organizations in urging Congress to pass CTA implementation delay legislation before the new law takes effect in 2024. Read the letter here.
