Today, NLBMDA sent a letter to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in support of NLBMDA’s priorities on infrastructure legislation. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden introduced the American Jobs Plan which outlined broad proposals to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure. The letter highlights certain provisions in Biden’s plan that NLBMDA supports as well as additional recommendations for the committees to consider as they draft legislation. These include proposals to:
- Rebuild and revitalize highways, bridges, ports, airports, transit systems, and drinking water infrastructure.
- Build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings.
- Increase investments in affordable housing and workforce housing.
- Modernize our nation’s schools and child care facilities.
- Improve infrastructure in the public housing system.
- Upgrade veterans’ hospitals and federal buildings.
- Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies.
- Prioritize workforce development and job training programs.
- Vocational Training: Support proposals to help alleviate the labor shortage in the construction industry.
- Complement and strengthen existing infrastructure tools, such as Private Activity Bonds.
In addition to infrastructure, NLBMDA sent a letter to the House Committee on Ways and Means and Senate Committee on Finance expressing NLBMDA’s priorities with regards to tax legislation. Last week, the Department of the Treasury released the Made in America Tax Plan Report to provide additional depth on the tax provisions included in President Biden’s infrastructure proposal. NLBMDA is lobbying Congress on the following tax priorities:
- Continue to support the mortgage interest deduction and oppose efforts that would eliminate or substantially modify it.
- Support a tax code that levels the playing field for small businesses and does not unfairly disadvantage S-Corporations and/or family-owned companies.
- Oppose unreasonable employment taxes that disadvantage small businesses.
- Reverse the current limits on the deduction of state and local taxes (SALT).
- Oppose increases to personal income tax rates that are also tax hikes on the many small businesses which are structured as pass-through entities (S-Corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships).
- Support measures to improve small business access to capital and competitiveness.
- Support the current estate tax exemption and eventual permanent repeal of the estate tax.
- Oppose proposals to remove legitimate valuation discounts for estate, gift, and generation skipping taxes, which businesses have used for the past two decades in order to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from overvaluing their businesses at death.
President Biden’s infrastructure and tax plans are currently just proposals and have not yet been drafted into legislative text. To this end, NLBMDA is engaging with Congress early to ensure the relevant committees are aware of the lumber and building material dealer industry’s priorities regarding these two critical issues. NLBMDA will continue to refine its policy positions in the coming months as legislative proposals become clearer and will communicate these priorities with Congress as necessary.
Grassroots Alerts
NLBMDA has also created grassroots alerts which allows members to easily contact their congressional legislators in support of these priorities. You can find them below:
For any further questions, please contact NLBMDA’s Legislative and Regulatory Coordinator Alex McIntyre at [email protected].
