| Weekly Update from Sam |
Dear Friends,
This week, 65 days after it was due, President Obama sent a proposed budget to Congress. Unfortunately, this budget falls short – it never balances and adds nearly a trillion dollars in spending. It’s time to get serious about the nation’s debt and the spending problem that caused it. Instead, for the second time in a few months, the President wants more tax increases. The fact is that higher taxes just slow an already struggling economy, because they would fall on many small business owners, the majority of which file their taxes as individuals.
Let’s get out of this destructive cycle of bigger government, more spending and higher taxes. In particular, the administration must stop asking small businesses to foot the bill for our nation’s credit card bill. The House of Representatives passed a budget that balances over ten years. That’s a far more responsible approach. Our fiscal mess was created over many decades and has accelerated over recent years. It will not be fixed rapidly, but we can move in the right direction with a fiscally responsible governing vision and sensible budget plan.
Sincerely,
Sam Graves
Chairman
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Latest Committee Action
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On Wednesday, the Committee held a hearing on small business tax reform. The NSBA this week released their 2013 Small Business Taxation Survey, in which one in four small business owners report spending 120 hours on taxes. For the first time since 1979, the Committee heard testimony from the House Ways and Means Chairman, Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), who testified about his small business tax reform discussion draft. A panel of small business owners then offered feedback on those concepts. The hearing examined how small businesses are disproportionately affected by tax complexity. The growing number of code provisions means that small business owners must spend more resources complying with the tax code rather than growing and creating jobs.
Also on Wednesday, Chairman Graves participated in the Ways and Means Committee Working Group on Small Business and Pass-Throughs. Chairman Camp has established 11 bipartisan working groups of Members of Congress who have met with hundreds of associations, think tanks, and interested parties in an effort to put forth transparent, comprehensive and truly bipartisan proposals to reform and simplify the tax code. CLICK HERE to view Graves’ presentation to the Group on Small Business and Pass-Throughs.
On Thursday, the Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations held the 113th Congress’s first hearing on the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. This hearing focused specifically on the sluggish implementation of JOBS Act rule promulgation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Just over a year ago, the bipartisan JOBS Act was signed into law. It was designed to reduce regulations for small businesses seeking to finance their companies through the public markets and the Internet, so that they can grow and create jobs.
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News from Washington
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On Wednesday, by a vote of 416-7, the House passed the Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act, H.R. 678, which will increase domestic energy independence and stimulate job growth by allowing for the implementation of hydropower facilities in existing Bureau of Reclamation water conduits.
On Friday, by a vote of 219-209, the House passed a bill that prevents the National Labor Relations Board from issuing any new decisions until its members are constitutionally appointed. The board includes three members unilaterally appointed by the President that were not confirmed by the Senate and were not made during a congressional recess. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled these appointments invalid, but the Board has continued to make decisions. The bill prevents further action until the Supreme Court acts or board members are constitutionally confirmed. |
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