No images? Click here Welcome back to this week's edition of the Washington Weekly newsletter - bringing you the latest and greatest policy updates from Washington, D.C.House Agriculture Committee Advances Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen American Food Supply Chain On Wednesday, May 18, 2022, he House Agriculture Committee voted unanimously to send to the House Floor U.S. Representatives Angie Craig (D-MN) and Dusty Johnson’s (R-SD) bipartisan Strengthening the Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Act. The legislation would create a task force at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would be responsible for evaluating the stability and reliability of the agriculture and food system as well as identifying specific recommendations to improve the security, safety and resilience of the supply chain. The task force would be required to submit a report detailing its work and recommendations to Congress no later than 270 days after the enactment of the bill. Specifically, the Agricultural and Food System Supply Chain Resilience and Crisis Response Task Force would be responsible for:
Read the full bill HERE. GCCA Briefs House Majority Small Business Committee Staff On Monday, May 16, 2022, during a coalition meeting with the Small Business Legislative Council, GCCA was given an opportunity to brief the majority staff of the House Small Business Committee. The opportunity allowed GCCA staff to highlight key issues such as labor constraints, regulatory burdens, and other disruptors to key committee staff. In addition, the committee staff expressed interest in hosting several hearings before the end of the year and solicited policy topics from the coalition that may warrant a future hearing. GCCA looks forward to continuing to advocate for the cold chain and engaging Small Business Committee as they consider hearings and legislations impacting our industry. COVID Aid Slips from Congressional Agenda Congressional leaders last week were rushing to tackle one crisis after another, and again left town without new funds to combat COVID-19. A $10 billion Covid emergency funding package will likely remained stalled until at least mid-June, aides and lawmakers said this week. Replenishing federal coffers to buy more COVID vaccines and antivirals will have to wait. The package has gotten caught up in a separate partisan battle over immigration. With continuing war in Ukraine and lingering US baby formula shortages, Democrats also say getting more COVID funding simply isn’t the most pressing issue. “Everybody is scattered,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said. “There’s so much demand for our resources, for our time, for our energy. Ukraine being really urgent among them—these elections,” she added, referring the primary elections in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday, March 17, 2022, that one million people in the US have died of COVID-related illnesses since 2020, a massive death toll that makes the virus one of the largest killers of Americans over the last two years. Competing priorities means there’s little pressure for Democrats and Republicans to break the stalemate on COVID, something that would require one or both sides to compromise on federal immigration policy. Senate Democrats Introduce Anti-Union Tax Bill On Thursday, May 12, 2022, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act to end the taxpayer subsidization of corporate union busting campaigns. The No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act would end the taxpayer subsidization of anti-union activity by corporations. The bill would classify businesses’ interference in worker organization campaigns like political speech under the tax code and therefore not tax deductible. Activities denied a deduction would include both unlawful attempts to influence employees, and lawful activities that nonetheless should not be subsidized by taxpayers. These include violations of the National Labor Relations Act, so-called “captive audience meetings”—where employers hold mandatory meetings during work hours and pressure employees against joining a union or interrogate workers—and million-dollar anti-union advertising campaigns around union organization elections. Read the full bill HERE. House Dems Pursue Long-Shot SALT Cap Strategy Lawmakers who hoped to raise the $10,000 deduction cap on state and local tax payments in Democrats’ stalled tax, climate, and social spending agenda are now looking to the annual government funding process. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), joined by Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), sent a letter Wednesday, May 18, 2022, to the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, asking it to provide SALT relief in its fiscal 2023 funding bill. The letter asks the subcommittee to include language prohibiting the IRS from blocking state legislative action intended to ease the financial impact of the cap, which was established in the Republican-led 2017 tax law. More than 20 states have enacted a SALT cap workaround involving an optional pass-through entity tax, but those laws only offer some taxpayers a chance at relief. “The cap of our SALT deduction Trump’s tax law imposed a double-taxation on NJ families and billions of dollars in additional costs on taxpayers in my district, and has made it more difficult for our towns and counties to invest in critical services such as our schools and first responders,” said Sherrill. While the stalled budget reconciliation package offered a possible path toward lifting the SALT cap without needing any Republican support, annual appropriations bills come with a 60-vote threshold for overcoming a Senate filibuster. House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Democrats’ new SALT cap plan is “dead-on-arrival” because there is no chance any bipartisan appropriations bill will include such a measure. If you have not yet participated in our grassroots campaigns, but would like to take action to oppose the PRO Act or oppose the harmful tax hikes in the American Job’s Plan, click the Take Action tab above now.
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