In addition to reauthorizing and fully funding all the workforce development programs embedded in WIOA the bill would:

• Dedicate 50 percent of the adult and dislocated worker funding toward upskilling workers through “individual training accounts” (ITAs).
• Manages the nation’s network of One-Stop Career Centers.
• Administers the Job Corps program with increased performance accountability.
• Streamlines the application process for “eligible training providers” to promote faster eligibility determinations and minimize administrative burdens for training providers active in multiple states.
• Encourages innovative sector partnerships by allowing states to invest in critical industry skills initiatives.
• Authorizes state and local workforce boards to aid employers in implementing skills-based hiring practices.
• Places greater emphasis on work-based learning for youth and on workforce education programs at community colleges that align with in-demand jobs.
• Establishes grant programs that support employment and training services for formerly incarcerated individuals.
• Strengthens the workforce data system by promoting the use of real-time labor market information, facilitating access to wage records data and promoting data transparency.
• Incentivizes regional consortia for workforce development areas so that workforce development boards may ensure that jobseekers are connected to industries and employers that are prominent in a region’s economy.

To read the fact sheet for A Stronger Workforce for America Act, .

To read the summary for A Stronger Workforce for America Act, .

To read the section-by-section for A Stronger Workforce for America Act, .

The bill now proceeds to the Senate where its path forward is uncertain. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ will be checking in with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee staff to obtain a better sense of the upper chamber’s plans on this issue/legislation.

Congress

Members of Congress are back home in their states and districts this week and next and will return to town on April 9.

With President Biden signing the second of two appropriations packages last week to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, there is no rest for the weary on the appropriations front. The fiscal year 2025 appropriations process is already underway with Congressional offices accepting appropriations requests in advance of the appropriations committees fashioning the 12 bills that fund all of the federal departments and agencies that make up the federal government footprint. Committee action is expected later this spring.

Regulatory Machine on Overdrive

The Biden regulatory agenda will be overly active in the coming weeks as the President seeks to solidify his legacy on policies ranging from climate and other environmental issues to labor. Evidence of this is already occurring with the recent unveiling of EPA’s final tailpipe emissions rule affecting light and medium-duty vehicles beginning in model year 2027. Before that announcement, the Administration finalized the Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate disclosure rule as well as the Department of Labor’s independent contractor rule. The sense of urgency is tied to two factors—the potential change in who occupies the White House next year as well as the Congressional Review Act or CRA.

The CRA is a little-known (outside of Washington) parliamentary tool whereby the next Congress—in this case, the 119th Congress—may repeal rules and regulations issued in the previous year. A Congressional Review Act resolution only needs a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass Congress and then, of course, needs to be signed by the President to take effect. This “lookback” provision is limited to the final 60 working days of the previous Congress, which is a bit of a moving target since it is not known right now when Congress is going to adjourn. Based on history, the 60 working-day lookback reaches at least into June but can extend to May or even April of the previous year.

Given the specter of the CRA, the Biden Administration is on the clock and is accelerating the finalization of rules and regulations so that they are not subject to this parliamentary procedure.

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ is close to the action and monitoring developments from departments and agencies that oversee policies that affect our sector. As always, we will keep you regularly informed.

Workforce

In meetings in the House and Senate recently, Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ has picked up that Representatives Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) will be circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter in the House soon asking for appropriations support for the Perkins Basic State Grant. Thompson and Bonamici are co-chairs of the Congressional Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus.

Each year under the Perkins statute, Congress appropriates approximately $1.4 billion in State formula grant funds under Title I (Basic State Grants) to develop more fully the academic knowledge and technical and employability skills of secondary and postsecondary education students who elect to enroll in career and technical education programs. This letter will purportedly be calling on appropriators to provide robust funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant. As soon as we have a copy of the letter, we will provide that to you.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing titled American Made: Growing U.S. Manufacturing through the Tax Code. Chairman Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) opening remarks were notable in that he highlighted his frustration over the Senate’s lack of action on the tax package that passed the House overwhelmingly earlier this year. The slate of witnesses echoed the same sentiment with CEOs from manufacturing companies and a labor union representative extolling the virtues of the business tax provisions in the package. 

The timing of this hearing is interesting as influential Senate Republicans are beginning to publicly peel away from GOP opposition to the proposal. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT) and Todd Young (R-IN) are the latest to signal that they would vote for the House-passed measure, which revives retroactively the 100 percent bonus depreciation benefit, the research and development tax credit, increases the limitations on expensing depreciable business assets under Sec. 179 and enhances interest expense deductibility provisions. In our discussions with Senate offices on both sides of the aisle, indications are that the package would easily clear the 60-vote threshold on the Senate floor if a vote were scheduled on the house bill—H.R. 7024. We are surmising that this hearing was held to further solidify the case for action on the tax package and that Leader Schumer is pondering bringing the bill up for a floor vote in the near future. We will keep you apprised of developments.

Biden’s FY 2025 Budget Prioritizes Workforce Development

On Tuesday, the Biden Administration unveiled its budget for Fiscal Year 2025. As is typical with every administration, the annual budget release ritual is more of a messaging exercise about the current President’s aspirational policy priorities. The Biden Administration’s FY 2025 budget follows this script. That said there are some notable items in the document around workforce development. For one, the budget provides $200 million to launch the Sectoral Employment through Career Training for Occupational Readiness (SECTOR) program, which will seed and scale a comprehensive approach to sector partnerships, needed wraparound services and training programs focused on growing industries that lead to job placement in a high-quality job.

The Budget also provides an increase of $50 million in apprenticeship programs, for a total of $335 million. This funding will expand access to Registered Apprenticeships, with a particular focus on directing apprenticeship resources toward increasing the number of workers from historically underrepresented groups. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ continues to sort through the language in the President’s budget submissions and will follow relevant items in the proposal as the appropriations process for FY 2025 commences.

Executive Order on Registered Apprenticeships

Late last week, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order (EO) to promote and expand use of registered apprenticeships. That EO may be found .

The focus of this EO is the federal workforce. It calls for federal departments and agencies to take steps to utilize Registered Apprenticeship programs to train and develop incumbent workers and candidates for employment so that they obtain the skills necessary to meet the current and emerging needs of the federal workforce.

Congressional Review of DOL’s Worker Classification Rule

Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), along with 54 cosponsors, introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn the recent Department of Labor’s (DOL) final rule at redefines how employers classify workers as independent contractors.

Senator Cassidy stated that rule “cost millions of independent professionals across the country their livelihoods while restricting the freedom of many millions more to have flexible work arrangements.” House

Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx had this to say: “The bicameral Congressional Review Act resolution led by Representative Kiley and Senator Cassidy offers Congress the opportunity to take a unified stand against the Department’s thirst for more government control over America’s workforce. Entrepreneurial opportunities and flexibility should be encouraged, not extinguished with heavy-handed mandates from the federal government.”

Several business organizations are challenging the rule in court including the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Trucking Association (ATA). As we have noted in previous updates on the IC rule, the independent contractor model is popular in the trucking sector. If this rule is allowed to stand in its current form, many contractors in service roles across the economy would be reclassified as “employees,” threatening business models in every link of the supply chain.

Late last month the that would significantly overhaul the registered apprenticeship program. Among other things, the proposed rule would:

• Update key areas related to standards of apprenticeship, including determining occupations suitable for registered apprenticeship; adding diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) strategies to recruitment; requiring minimum duration of 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning and 144 hours of related instruction; and revising labor standards (such as prohibition of non-compete and non-disclosure provisions in apprenticeship agreements).
• Add paperwork requirements including data reporting requirements, and require employers to maintain records on credentials, apprenticeship progress, and end-point assessments.
• Propose a newly registered Career and Technical Education (CTE) Apprenticeship program linked to high school, community college, and university levels. This program would require 900 hours of paid on-the-job training and at least 540 hours of CTE apprenticeship-related instruction.

The Associated Building and Contractors (ABC) has panned the proposal as has House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA). In a survey of its members, ABC found that the proposal will discourage employer and provider participation in the Government Registered Apprenticeship Program (GRAP) by needlessly adding more uncertainty and costs in the form of new recordkeeping and reporting requirements while also eliminating popular flexible, competency-based approaches to workforce development that are attractive to apprentices and employers. Representative Foxx and Senator Cassidy both issued statements opposing the rule on grounds that it would fundamentally make employer participation in registered apprenticeships more difficult.

DOL is accepting comments on the proposal through March 18.*

Congress: More Funding Delays and Leadership Transitions

As expected, Congress is poised to yet again kick the can on appropriations and approve a short-term Continuing Resolution to avoid a partial federal government shutdown on Saturday. Recall that funding for roughly half the government operations runs out March 1, while the second half expires on March 8. Under H.R. 7463, which the full House is considering on Thursday, the March 1 deadline would be extended until March 8 and the March 8 funding expiration would be pushed out until March 22.

In leadership news, long time Senate Republican leader—currently Minority Leader—Mitch McConnell announced he would step down from his leadership role in November. This development sets up a heated contest between top contenders Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and John Barrasso-Republican Conference Chairman (R-WY).

*For more information, or assistance submitting comment, please contact Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝’s Government Affairs Team at info@abmalliance.org.

1. Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (H.R. 7024)

SUPPORT

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝’s top legislative goal, H.R. 7024, secured overwhelming support in the House, retroactively extending vital tax benefits for businesses. The bill focuses on pro-growth, pro-jobs tax incentives, with provisions key to LBM including Research and Development (R&D) investment incentives, interest deductibility, and raising the immediate expensing cap for small businesses. It also enhances the Child Tax Credit, contributing to economic competitiveness, job creation, and relief for working families.

Having cleared the House, Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝â€™s advocacy efforts are now strategically shifting to the Senate. Challenges, particularly regarding the Child Tax Credit and the “pay-for” mechanism, underscore the need for continued refinement. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ is committed to actively working to navigate these challenges and ensure the success of our tax priorities in 2024.

2. The Credit Card Competition Act (S1838)

SUPPORT

Focused on introducing competition into the credit card network market, presently dominated by the Visa-Mastercard duopoly, the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) has stood as a key legislative priority for Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ since its first introduction in 2022. In addressing concerns about inflation and escalating prices, the CCCA’s broader impact is anticipated to positively influence consumer spending and provide relief to small businesses grappling with the financial strains associated with high transaction fees.

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ strongly supports the CCCA as it aims to empower merchants, promote better service, and reduce costs, ultimately fostering a fairer credit card market. We will continue to urge lawmakers to prioritize the passage of S. 1838 to bring about positive changes in the credit card market in 2024.

3. Strengthening America’s Supply Chain

SUPPORT

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee recently approved a . This initiative not only addresses immediate challenges concerning the resilience of the U.S. supply chain, but also brings positive legislation to support CDL drivers by including provisions derived from two pivotal pieces of Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ priority legislation from 2023: the LICENSE Act and the SHIP IT Act.

In 2024, Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ is dedicated to advocating for the passage of this comprehensive supply chain legislation package. In an environment where disruptions are increasingly common, our efforts are directed towards legislation that not only addresses current concerns, but also secures long-term adaptability and enhances competitiveness.

4. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Reauthorization (H.R. 6655)

SUPPORT

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ recognizes the urgent need for workforce development and endorses H.R. 6655, a comprehensive WIOA reauthorization. The bill allocates 50% of funding to upskill the American workforce, prioritizes employer-led initiatives, and ensures displaced workers access to skill development programs.

Despite the challenges of an election year, Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ remains hopeful for the bill’s passage, underscoring the industry’s commitment to fostering a skilled and qualified workforce.

More Information to Come

In the coming days and weeks, Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ will provide more detailed overviews on each 2024 legislative priority. In the meantime, we urge our members to get involved by becoming a champion of the LBM industry.

Take Action: Your involvement is crucial for shaping policies that ensure prosperity and healthy competition in the LBM industry. Help support these priorities through engagement with federal legislators and participating in Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝’s 2024 Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C.

Stay Informed: Explore Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝â€™s advocacy initiatives on our website and stay informed by subscribing to our weekly e-newsletter, The Advocate, offering essential updates on federal regulations, Advocacy Day plans, and weekly reports with must know information from our lobbyist in D.C, Pat Rita.

On Thursday January 18, the House Education and Workforce Committee’s Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee held a hearing to take testimony on how CTE could help address the nearly 9 million job openings in the U.S. that remain unfilled. A good summary of the hearing that the committee compiled may be found .

A number of common themes that we have heard over the years in our advocacy for workforce development were raised at the hearing–namely that parents and educators remain stuck in a “college-for-all” mentality and a shortage of resources for CTE and career-oriented learning. A number of witnesses testified that a main obstacle in growing CTE programs and skills learning is a national shortage of CTE teachers.

Late last year, this committee reported on a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) reauthorization bill (H.R. 6655).

Among other things the bill would:

• Upgrade the skills of the American workforce by dedicating 50 percent of the adult and dislocated worker funding towards upskilling workers.
• Create an emphasis on employer-led initiatives that equip workers with the skill sets to fill jobs in critical industries and help the currently employed workforce upskill to avoid displacement and advance their careers.
• Ensure workers displaced from their jobs through no fault of their own can access robust skill development services, including through “individual training accounts.”         

Although 2024 is an election year and legislating will become increasingly difficult as we progress farther into the year, Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ remains hopeful that a comprehensive WIOA reauthorization bill with ample funding for CTE will make it to the President’s desk. We will keep you apprised of developments.

Tax Updates

We continue to hear that the House will take up the tax package that contains retroactive extension of our trifecta of important business tax incentives (100 percent bonus depreciation and R&D tax credit among them) next week. The bill will reportedly move on the “suspense calendar” which is typically reserved for non-controversial legislation.

As we noted last week, the bill faces some head winds in the Senate as Republicans are looking to make changes to the Child Tax Credit portion of the bill. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) expressed concerns about a provision that allows tax filers to use either the current year’s or the previous year’s income to calculate a certain portion of the child tax credit. The Wall Street Journal editorial board also singled out that language in a recent op-ed critical of the bill, claiming it would undermine work incentives.

But we expect a good outcome in the House next week and will turn our focus to the Senate following that vote.

This week, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed two key workforce development bills on a bipartisan basis. The more sweeping measure would reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which is the central statute in federal law that underpins all of our country’s workforce development programs. That bill—H.R. 6655 A Stronger Workforce for America Act—seeks to upgrade employee skills by dedicating 50 percent of the adult and dislocated worker funding towards upskilling workers. It would also place emphasis on employer-led initiatives that equip workers with the skill sets necessary to fill jobs that local employers are looking to fill and help the currently employed workforce upskill to avoid displacement and advance their careers. Finally, it ensures workers displaced from their jobs through no fault of their own can access robust skill development services, including through “individual training accounts.”

The legislation passed the committee on a 44-1 vote and heads to the House floor which will take up the measure when Congress returns in January.

The second is H.R. 6585, . As we noted last week, this bill would–

• Help students participate in short-term programs to move into a job quickly.
• Create a quality assurance system for Workforce Pell Grant programs—allowing any institution of higher education to take part as long as they meet all the requirements.
• Ensure all programs provide education aligned with requirements of in-demand industries, meet employers’ hiring requirements and provide students with relevant skills necessary for employment.

This legislation also passed on a bipartisan vote of 37-8 and heads to the House floor.

This is a positive development for our workforce policy agenda as it finally shows some momentum and will put pressure on the Senate to move a bill in 2024.

NDAA 2024: Key Provisions for Wood Manufacturers

This week the Senate and then the House approved Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) text that carries some important provisions for wood building material manufacturers. One would require the Secretary of Defense to consider all types of building materials for any design-bid-build military construction project before proceeding beyond the 35 percent design phase and contract award. What typically occurs now is that projects default to a check list that is decades old and does not account for innovative building materials like mass timber that save money and are more efficient and sustainable.

The second calls upon the Secretary of Defense to establish a continuing education curriculum for instructional purposes for sustainable building materials such as mass timber and project designs that feature mass timber in order to improve military installation resilience.

The legislation is on its way to the President who will sign it.

This week, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA), Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) introduced H.R. 6585, the . The legislation provides opportunities for students and workers looking to gain skills in high-demand fields by allowing Pell Grants to support students enrolled in high-quality, short-term workforce programs that will lead to career advancement.

Specifically, the bill authorizes the Department of Education to award Workforce Pell Grants beginning on July 1, 2025, for the 2025-2026 award year. An eligible student for a Workforce Pell Grant must be enrolled in an eligible workforce program, may not have attained a postgraduate degree and must otherwise meet the eligibility criteria to receive a Pell Grant.

In terms of program eligibility to qualify for these grants, workforce programs would have to be at least 150 clock hours of instruction (or an equivalent number of credit hours), but less than 600 clock hours of instruction and offered during a minimum of eight weeks, but less than 15 weeks. Also, a state workforce board must first determine if a program provides education aligned with high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors or occupations, meets the hiring requirements of potential in-demand industry or sector employers and satisfies any applicable educational prerequisite requirement for professional licensure or certification in the state or states in which the program is offered.

The bill authorizes $40 million for Fiscal Year 2025 to support this program, and $30 million each subsequent year through FY 2029.

This legislation is promising in that it has bipartisan support from members of the committee that authorizes and oversees workforce development. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ will be advocating for this and other workforce development measures as reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act takes shape.

Tax Extenders Hearing

The House Ways & Means Committee’s Tax Subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday to highlight the importance of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s business tax benefits and the need to extend them. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) noted in his opening remarks not only the importance of acting on tax extensions now, but looming tax deadlines, particularly in 2025 when the Sec. 199A deduction is set to expire. Recall, this is the 20 percent deduction for qualified business income (QBI) for S-Corporations and other pass-through tax structures. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ has been advocating aggressively for retroactive extension of the 100 percent bonus depreciation tax benefit, as well as retroactive renewal of the research and development tax credit. We will expand our focus next year on extending Sec. 199A as well.

Rural Forest Markets Act (RFMA)

This week, Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Debbie Stabenow(D-MI) and Mike Braun (R-IN) introduced the Rural Forest Markets Act, legislation that would provide federal government incentives for private landowners to participate in voluntary carbon markets. Increasingly, forest landowners are looking to boost their return on investment by selling carbon sequestration credits generated from their managed forests to companies looking to offset carbon emissions or otherwise improve their carbon profile. The costs involved in ramping up to participate in these programs can be prohibitive for smaller landowners and this bill seeks to break down cost barriers to entry. 

While well intentioned, the legislation has stirred concern among those in the forest products value chain that worry about what the long-term effects of widescale participation in these markets will have on wood fiber availability. These programs typically require landowners to commit to longer harvesting rotation cycles on their timberland holdings. If enough landowners within a 50-mile radius of a sawmill postpone timber harvests by ten to fifteen years, it could put that sawmill in jeopardy of running out of raw material to make building products. Some more drastic modeling creates scenarios where forest landowners forgo harvesting altogether and rely on carbon credits for their income.

This bill is unlikely to pass, but with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow as a cosponsor, there may be efforts to fold this bill into the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-PA) has serious concerns with the bill (RFMA) and would likely oppose its inclusion in any Farm Bill rewrite, but Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ is monitoring developments closely.

This week, a led by Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-IN) and signed by over 150 House Republicans was sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to urge action by the end of this year on the expired and expiring business tax benefits that were authorized by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. None of the signatories sits on the House Ways & Means Committee and that was by design. Rep. Yakym wanted to show leadership that there is strong support across the Republican Caucus for action by year’s end on these key tax benefits.  

These benefits are:

• Full expensing (100 percent depreciation) of the cost of machinery and equipment in the year in which the costs are incurred.
  • Benefit began to ratchet down this year by 20 percent.
  • Will decrease 20 percent each year until fully phased out in 2027.
• R&D Tax Credit which allows costs of research and development to be written off the year in which they are incurred.
  • Lapsed in 2022.  R&D costs now have to be amortized over 5 years, making investments in the business more costly and restricting cash flow.
  • U.S. is now one of only two developed countries requiring amortization of these costs.
• Restoring EBITDA as the standard for deducting interest expenses.
  • Prior to 2022, business interest expense deductions were limited to 30 percent of Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA). Now they are limited to 30 percent of EBIT—a stricter standard that serves as a tax on investment by making it more expensive for capital intensive industries throughout the supply chain to finance job creating growth.

A package of legislation was reported by the House Ways & Means Committee earlier this year but has not received a floor vote. Those bills are–H.R. 2673, the American Innovation and R&D Competitiveness Act and S. 866, the American Innovation and Jobs Act, which would permanently repeal the R&D amortization provision; H.R. 2788 and S. 1232, the American Investment in Manufacturing Act, which would permanently restore the pro-growth EBITDA interest limitation standard; and H.R. 2406 and S. 1117, the Accelerate Long-Term Investment Growth Now Act, which would permanently extend full expensing.

While Speaker Johnson supports the tax package, the complicating factor is lack of a legislative vehicle. This is an unusual year in that there is no pre-Christmas “fiscal cliff” driving action on a budget deal where tax policy would usually ride. Every year for the last decade, Congress has been at work right up to Christmas week hammering out a budget deal. This year Congress funded the government into early 2024. The only vehicles left on which to legislate this year are the National Defense Authorization Act and legislation extending funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, which runs out December 31. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ will keep the pressure on Members of Congress on and off the tax writing committees to urge action on our tax priorities before the end of the year.  

Workforce Development

Earlier this month, co-chairs of the House Career and Technical Education Caucus—Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)—introduced a resolution (H.Res. 873) designating November as “National Career Development Month.” In the lengthy “whereas” section of the resolution, the measure notes that career development assistance is a community partnership effort involving the education system, the home and family structure, business, industry, and a wide variety of community agencies and organizations and is not carried out by career development professionals alone.  It further notes that, as of September 2023, there are 6.5 million workers that are unemployed at the same time that employers across the country and in almost every sector struggle to find employees.  The resolution may be found .

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. 

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ will continue to meet with legislators and staff to urge our support for enacting a meaningful tax package early in the new year.

Workforce

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ 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. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ 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

Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ 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. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝ 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.