NFIB

Tax Relief, Affordable Health Care Top Small-Business Agenda
01/09/2003

The small-business group NFIB today unveiled its federal lobbying agenda for the 108th Congress, which convened in Washington this week.

Tax relief and affordable health care top the list, as they have in previous years, but this year many of the specific agenda items are new.

NFIB President Jack Faris (L) and Senior Vice President Dan Danner announce the small business agenda for the 108th Congress.

"The good news is that many of the items that were on our agenda at the beginning of the last Congress - like a full repeal of the death tax, income-tax relief and a repeal of the burdensome ergonomics regulation - have been enacted into law," said NFIB President Jack Faris. "The bad news is that the economy isn't as strong as it could be, taxes are still too high, the death-tax repeal is only temporary and health-insurance costs are skyrocketing even further out of control."

At a breakfast briefing for reporters in Washington, Faris laid out the highlights of NFIB's agenda:

Tax Relief

• Economic Stimulus Package: Accelerated income-tax relief and increased expensing limits. On Jan. 7, President Bush proposed an economic stimulus package based largely on tax relief that will help small business lead the way back to strong and lasting economic growth. Faris said the president's plan would help small business in a number of direct ways - such as accelerating planned income-tax relief and increasing the annual expensing limit to $75,000 - and also indirectly by improving the overall health of the economy.
  
  
• Permanent death-tax repeal. NFIB will again lead the fight to make the death-tax repeal permanent. Although the tax-relief bill approved two years ago will lead to a repeal of the death tax in 2010, it will rise from the dead back to 2001 levels the following year unless Congress approves legislation making the repeal permanent.

Affordable Health Care

• Association Health Plans (AHPs). AHPs would allow small-business owners to band together across state lines through their membership in bona-fide associations like NFIB to purchase health insurance for their families and employees. This would give small-business owners the same right to more affordable health care that labor unions and Fortune 500 companies already enjoy.
  
  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), AHPs would save small-business owners and their employees as much as 25 percent on their health insurance. The savings would come from basic economies of scale. Just like buying a case of soda at a supermarket costs less per can than buying 24 individual cans at a vending machine, AHPs would allow groups like NFIB to buy thousands of health-insurance policies at a lower per-policy cost and pass those savings along.

Legal Reform

• Reform medical malpractice laws. Due to skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance rates, many small-business owners are finding it increasingly difficult to afford health insurance for themselves and their workers, and to locate specialty medical care from OB/GYNs, surgeons and emergency room doctors. NFIB supports legislation that would cap non-economic damages at $250,000, and abolish joint and several liability, ensuring that parties in a lawsuit will only be liable for damages in direct proportion to their percentage of responsibility. NFIB also supports implementing a sliding scale for attorney's contingency fees, and reforming the collateral source rule.
  
  
• Cap damages in civil suits. Because of the fear of unlimited punitive damages, many business owners settle out of court for significant awards, even if the claim is unwarranted. NFIB supports legislation that would cap punitive damages in almost all civil cases for businesses with fewer than 25 employees. Legislation in the 107th Congress would have set the cap at the lesser of three times compensatory damages or $250,000, and NFIB plans to support similar legislation in the 108th Congress.

Ease Mandates

• Promote common-sense enforcement and compliance-assistance programs at federal agencies. For decades, agencies like the IRS, OSHA and EPA have taken a confrontational approach toward small business. Instead of playing an aggressive game of "Gotcha!" with well-intentioned entrepreneurs, federal agencies should offer a helping hand that helps small-business owners successfully and efficiently navigate the way through Washington's complex regulatory maze. NFIB will support any efforts that promote this new, more cooperative approach.

For a copy of NFIB's full federal legislative agenda for the 108th Congress, contact NFIB's Media Communications Department at 202.554.9000.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is the nation's largest small-business advocacy group. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington and all 50 state capitals. More information is available on-line at www.nfib.com. CONTACT: Michelle Dimarob, (202) 554-9000