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| U.S. Chamber's Doug Loon shares a brief issue update with OACCT members on immigration reform, healthcare and the fiscal crisis. |
Doug Loon, Vice President of Regional Affairs &
Advocacy shared updates several key federal issues and an
outlook for the nation’s economy, which is showing growth for 2013 as
well as energy prices are holding steady (from energy
scarcity to abundance – creating the
potential for long-term growth). However, economic uncertainty continues to be
a drag on the economy - tax increases,
regulator pressures and continued unemployment.
Loon also shared that the U.S. Chamber supports immigration
reform in a four key areas: boarder control, work visa programs,
employer verification and legalization. Through these four areas the U.S.
Chamber is building consensus for broad changes to the structure of the
nation’s immigration laws.
On the healthcare front, the
Chamber is asking legislators to repeal employer mandate and are concerned for individuals
and small businesses that will be taking the brunt of the health insurance tax
(HIT), which is a tax on insurance premiums to help pay for Obamacare.
Doug also touched on the fiscal cliff and outlined our
current federal
debt ($16 trillion--$11 trillion is held by the public and $5
trillion held by intergovernmental holdings) and illustrated in a chart how
social security, Medicaid and Medicare comprises approximately 60% of the budget and
growing each year. The other 40% of the federal budget is facing broad
cuts of $85 billion this year mostly from defense and other non-mandatory
federal programs. The concern over the debt is that it could lead to
higher interest rates, weak dollar, inflation, less private investment, lower
economic and job growth, and decline in our global competitiveness.
Loon then went on to describe the Chamber's 'three bucket' approach
to addressing our nation’s annual deficits
and debt, which includes: entitlement reform, comprehensive tax
reform and American energy (encourage smart
development of resources both on and off shore and use federal and state lands for energy development).
Upcoming important fiscal cliff dates:
March 27th-appropriations bills: not a lot of reforms
included; this will manage the 40% of budget (defense, non-defense, etc.)
May 19-projected date for next debt limit extension (next
big fiscal cliff if not resolved before).
On a positive note, Loon outlined several positive economic
indicators for the U.S. economy - the U.S. is outperforming competitors,
has a new energy boom, has growth in global markets, has a revival of U.S.
manufacturing, the U.S. has a demographic edge and that many states are leading
the way in building economies through good tax and regulatory policies and
incubating business and job growth.
The second speaker, Ted Phlegar, U.S. Chamber's Senior
Counselor with the Workforce Freedom Initiative,
discussed labor laws, union challenges and equal representation for both sides
of labor issues.
Phlegar spent time discussing the Department of Labor (DOL)
and the National Mediation Board, but elaborated on the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB)'s approach to pursue an aggressive union organizing agenda
rather than impartially enforce the current laws. Ted outlined that the
NRLB is a five member agency that is charged with conducting union elections,
rulings and disputes. The board is technically operating without
a quorum, so nominations to this board will be important.
Also, shared was current use of "work
centers". Work Centers don't have members, operate similar to a
union in trying to change working conditions, but don't have to follow union
laws. The U.S. Chamber believes these groups should be bound by the same set of
union laws.
For more information on these topics, feel free to go to www.uschamber.com or contact Doug Loon at dloon@uschamber.com or tphelgar@uschamber.com
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