Milwaukee Biz Blog

We certainly agree with President George W. Bush that Congress needs to move quickly to pass an economic stimulus package. The proposal the House and administration agreed to contains much-welcomed provisions that will keep small businesses represented Monday night in the First Lady’s box by NFIB member Jim Barnard of Barnard Manufacturing in St. John’s, Mich., creating new jobs and driving the economy.

Jim, who’s his company’s chief financial officer, can testify to the effectiveness of past increases in Sec. 179 expensing, which has allowed him to grow his business to about 125 employees. Doubling that amount to $250,000 will give him the means to invest in more equipment and more employees right away, and Congress should provide small businesses like Jim’s that opportunity without delay.

Long term, though, small businesses look forward to permanent tax relief, both for their planning purposes and for the economic advantages the president’s earlier tax cuts provided. We urge Congress to recognize the importance of this relief to small-business owners, and to move expeditiously to make tax cuts permanent. Reports tell us that in 11 of the past 12 months, small businesses added more jobs than medium- and large-size businesses combined, and that’s a trend we want to maintain.

The president’s address recognizes many important changes that need to be made to our health care system to provide access to affordable health care for all. Many of the points he made in Monday night's address are embodied in NFIB’s 10 Principles for Small Business Health Care Reform, including:

• Increasing transparency in costs and quality to enable consumers to make better health care choices.
• Improving health care information technology to provide more transparent information more efficiently.
• Allowing members of groups such as NFIB to band together to negotiate prices for health insurance, and including the ability to purchase health insurance plans across state lines rather being limited to only the policies available in their state.
• Providing equitable tax treatments to help all Americans afford health insurance.

We look forward to working with policymakers on both sides of the aisle to turn these ideas into reality and providing a much-needed boost to small businesses that want to provide health plans to their employees, but just can’t afford it.

Dan Danner is the executive vice president, public policy and political, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation's largest small business advocacy organiztion in Washington, D.C.

Editor's note: The following is the text of a letter recently sent to Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.).

Dear Congressman Shuler,

On behalf of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation's leading small-business advocacy group, I am writing to express our strong support for H.R. 4088, the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007 (SAVE Act).

This legislation takes into account the concerns small-business owners have with illegal immigration, and in particular, the employer verification sections strike a fair balance between increased enforcement and limiting the regulatory burdens placed on small business.

Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and small-business owners believe that Congress needs to fulfill its obligation to enforce our borders and provide a nation-wide employee verification system.

Many states are working to enact their own enforcement measures, and if Congress does not act, the resulting impact will be chaotic as small-business owners would face a complex and confusing set of enforcement policies.  We commend you for recognizing that a failure to act by Congress may well result in 50 state and local governments enacting their own immigration enforcement measures.

Like most Americans, small-business owners are troubled by the problem of illegal immigration. According to recent NFIB Research Foundation polls.

• Over 90 percent of NFIB members believe that illegal immigration is a serious problem;
• 86 percent say that finding a solution should be a "very high" or "high" priority for Congress and the administration.
• 73 percent of NFIB members agreed that employers should be required to use a government-run verification system.
• 83 percent stated that employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants should be subject to fines or other penalties.

Furthermore, they believe that an automated system to identify eligible workers would help ease I-9 burdens.
NFIB believes that in order for an immigration reform effort to be successful, the requirements and enforcement provisions must be workable, efficient and fair for small businesses. As such, NFIB supports an employment eligibility verification system (EEVS) that includes a reasonable limit on small-business penalties and reduces such penalties on first-time offenders, prohibits penalties for good-faith violations, protects employers if incorrect information on a worker is given by the EEVS and contains an appropriate phase-in time of the new EEVS system. Title II of the SAVE Act addresses these small-business concerns and is consistent with the beliefs of our members.

NFIB is pleased that the SAVE Act retains current internal revenue code that takes into account the size of an employer in its fee structure. We also appreciate that the bill retains the safe haven provision for voluntary and early compliance. Small-business owners are always concerned about how government regulations will burden them, and we applaud the inclusion of a 1-800 number for verification purposes.

As Congress begins consideration of H.R. 4088, we are eager to work with you to ensure that America's small businesses are not unduly burdened or unfairly scrutinized. NFIB is hopeful that during committee consideration of the bill, further legal certainty can be clarified for small employers that hire subcontractors. Also, H.R. 4088 would require an employer to allow an employee only 10 business days to correct any mismatching number with the Social Security Administration or face termination. NFIB supports a 90-day notification time period.  In addition, while our members support an enforceable guest worker program and expanding H-2B visas for economic need, we understand the need to first secure our borders and verify employment status.

Small-business owners feel strongly about enforcing our borders and creating a workable employee verification system, and we endorse your legislation.

Thank you for your strong support of small businesses, and we appreciate your leadership on this issue.

Sincerely,
                    
Dan Danner, executive vice president, public policy and political, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).