Minimum Wage
The Agenda: Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) isn't in the majority party anymore, but that doesn't mean he isn't a formidable force. As the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Health Committee, he'll give its chairman, the soft-spoken Senator Gregg, fits with his plan for a minimum-wage increase. In the last Congress, Kennedy was defeated in his attempt to raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1997. (It's now at $5.15.) This time Kennedy wants a $1.50 hourly hike, which his office says would boost the income of 10 million working people by $3,000 a year.
The Prospects: With the GOP in power in both chambers, a minimum- wage increase would generally be a nonstarter. But Democrats are looking for defining issues, voters are angry over the lousy economy, and moderate Republicans could end up voting for a minimum-wage hike. Key here is Olympia Snowe, herself a moderate. "I am sympathetic to [a minimum-wage increase], and I will take a look at it," Snowe says. "Of course, you have to look at the costs to small business." The NFIB, and just about every other business lobby inside the Beltway, will fight hard against an increase, but Kennedy will likely bring the issue directly to the Senate floor, bypassing Republican-controlled Senate committees. One compromise already being floated is to couple any hike in the minimum wage with a package of targeted small-business tax cuts.
"An increase in the IRS's Section 179 equipment-expense limit may go through this year as part of the overall tax package that the Senate Finance Committee will be sweating over."
Automobile Expensing
The Agenda: The NFIB wants an increase in the $14,460 limit that a business can deduct from its taxes in depreciation on an automobile. The NFIB says that number is outdated and that with today's use of SUVs by business, the limit should be raised to $25,000.
The Prospects: Proponents say that as many as 10 million small businesses could take advantage of the proposal, but the IRS is balking at the idea. In the end, congressional inertia and fear of ballooning deficits may conspire to strangle this new idea in its crib -- this year.
Business Checking Accounts
The Agenda: A bill that would repeal the 1933 statute that prohibits banks from paying interest on business checking accounts passed the House last year, but a similar bill by Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) sat stuck in a Senate committee. Leading the charge for the opposition are New York senator Charles Schumer and the New York financial industry.
The Prospects: Now that Shelby is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the bill has a chance to get to the Senate floor. But will he give the issue enough attention? Insiders gossip that the senator from Alabama secretly wants to head up the CIA. He's been extremely visible on intelligence issues, pushing hard for post-September 11 reforms in the CIA and FBI, and has already called for top spook George Tenet to resign. Shelby's staff, of course, say he's happy right where he is. But they would say that, wouldn't they?
Home-Office Deduction
The Agenda: With the rise of self-employed professionals (and, yes, the decline in the economy), millions of people are working out of home offices. At tax time they face a confusing formula. To be deductible, a room used as a home office must be permanently dedicated as such. The square footage of that room as a percentage of the rest of the house determines the dollar amount of the deduction in rent, utilities, mortgage, and so on. The small-business lobby wants a standard home-office deduction of $2,500, figuring that more people will understand it and more of the tiniest businesses will actually be able to take advantage of it.
The Prospects: The Senate is not the kind of place that's hospitable to new ideas. Spittoons still grace the chamber, should any senator wish to gnaw on a bit of chaw, but senators are not permitted to use laptops on the floor. Give the Senate a session or two to chew over the idea of a simpler home-office deduction. Then maybe it will pass. The NFIB hopes that Representatives Mac Collins (R-Ga.) and Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who have been supportive of this initiative in the past, will take the lead in this Congress.
Federal Prison Contracts
The Agenda: Under a mandatory-source regulation, the government is required by law to buy products or services from federal prisoners if available. But the NFIB hates chain gangs, or the modern-day equivalent thereof. It gripes that Federal Prison Industries, the federal government's prison-labor unit, unfairly undermines companies that would otherwise have a shot at doing the work. There's $560 million worth of contracts at stake here, and more than 20,000 inmate workers involved. The NFIB would like the mandatory-source requirement repealed.
The Prospects: Pretty good. This idea was poised to sail through Congress last year as part of the Department of Defense reauthorization, but House Armed Services Committee chairman Bob Stump (R-Ariz.) became ill and was replaced by Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who opposes the measure. The bill went nowhere in the Senate, and Congress was ultimately unable to pass the reauthorization anyway. Look for supporters like Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) to bring this one up as a freestanding bill, not subject to the fate of larger pieces of legislation.
Eamon Javers is a writer and editor based in Washington, D.C.
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