Every year, NFIB’s annual D.C. Fly-In reinforces the small business community’s influence on Capitol Hill. NFIB members from all across the country paid a visit to the nation’s capital earlier this week to lobby hard on the issues currently under debate in Congress that affect our members.
In fact, during the Fly-In, the House took up debate on the harmful “Raise the Wage” bill that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. NFIB members on hand were able to tell their elected leaders how that affects their ability to run their business. Unfortunately, the House approved the bill and we now must urge the Senate to prevent this bill from moving forward. NFIB research shows the bill would cost the economy 1.6 million jobs, half of which are in the small business sector. Our research also was backed by the Congressional Budget Office, which reached a similar conclusion when it analyzed the bill.
NFIB members also talked to Congress about a proposed corporate transparency bill that would force lots of additional paperwork for businesses with fewer than 20 employees and impose steep financial and criminal penalties for failure to comply. Read more about this troublesome bill here.
Finally, members also urged Congress to make the 20 percent Small Business Tax Deduction, which our members fought hard for, permanent. With bills on all these topics, the timing for our visits couldn’t have been better.
The Fly-In is a powerful tool for NFIB members to tell their legislators directly about the issues facing small business owners. The small business economy would be the third-largest economy in the world were it broken out on its own, and it’s performing better these days. Now is not the time to slow it down with new, burdensome laws.
If you didn’t attend the Fly-In, you can still make your voice heard.
Take part in our “virtual” Fly-In by using these links to tell your elected members of Congress what you think about important issues facing small business today, including making the small business tax deduction permanent, opposing the $15 national minimum wage, and stopping unnecessary regulatory burdens on small business.
NFIB is here to provide you ways to get involved at the state and federal level, both in-person and online, to be that voice of small business that our leaders need to hear.
I encourage you to raise your voice with us.
