Monday, October 26, 2009
Don Manzullo Legislative & Administrative Victories
Congressman Don Manzullo’s
Major Victories
October 26, 2009
MAJOR LEGISLATIVE SUCCESSES1) Authored major re-write of legislation to keep jobs in the United States by providing a 9 percent tax deduction to large and small manufacturers that produce their goods in America. (Held Small Business Committee hearings on issue), which will be fully phased in for 2010 – LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 2004 (Public Law 108-357);
2) Authored law in Veteran’s Benefits Act of 2001 allowing veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness to get disability. Law was inspired by late Freeport, IL Alderman Dan Steele, a Gulf War veteran who died at Age 36 from Gulf War Illness -- LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 2001 (P.L. 107-103);
3) Authored amendment requiring Title X-funded family planning clinics to follow state-mandated reporting requirements for child abuse and molestation. Law was inspired by case of 13-year-old Crystal Lake girl repeatedly molested by her middle school teacher whose crime was shielded by the confidentiality requirements of Title X -- LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 1998 (P.L. 105-277);
4) Authored law to eliminate burdensome reporting requirements on colleges and universities trying to comply with regulations surrounding Hope Scholarships, saving community colleges, trade schools and universities more than $100 million each year in administrative costs -- LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 2002 (P.L. 107-131);
5) Authored legislation in mid ‘90s that maintained Clean Air Act standards while removing onerous mandate that would have required McHenry County residents to car pool to work, saving U.S. schools and businesses more than a billion dollars a year -- LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 1995 (P.L. 104-70);
6) Obtained a vote of 357 to 71 in the House to pass his bill to reauthorize the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) after a previous OPIC reauthorization bill authored by another Member of Congress went down to defeat three years earlier by a vote of 157 to 260. OPIC helps U.S. manufacturers create jobs and sell their goods overseas – SIGNED INTO LAW IN 1999 (P.L. 106-158);
7) Played a major role in rewriting the Fastener Quality Act to overturn a proposed regulation that could have bankrupted more than 80 northern Illinois manufacturers of nuts, bolts and screws. The legislation maintains strong safety standards for fasteners while attacking the true nature of the problem (fraud) instead of placing unnecessary burdens on reputable fastener companies – LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 1998 (P.L. 105-234).
8) Significantly influenced two major patent reform bills to (a) prevent the premature release of patent applications (Title IV of Division B of P.L. 106-113) and (b) establish a lower set of fees for small businesses (Title VIII of Division B of P.L. 108-447) – LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW.
9) Small Business Administration (SBA)-related legislation:
- Passed into law legislation that fully re-opened the main small business credit program at the SBA – the 7(a) program – in 2004 (P.L. 108-217);
- Passed into law a SBA reauthorization bill in 2004 that, among other items, removed the annual appropriation for the 7(a) loan subsidy that saved taxpayers $79 million a year and increased the number of small business loans (Division K of P.L. 108-447). Opposed legislation that reinstated the small business loan subsidy ($375 million in the “economic stimulus” package (P.L. 111-5) and $80 million in the FY 10 Financial Services Appropriations bill (H.R. 3170)).
- Created greater opportunities for manufacturers at no cost to taxpayers to participate in the Certified Development Company (CDC) or 504 program (Division K of P.L. 108-447);
11) Authored provision to include a heightened security review of U.S. assets purchased by foreign state-owned enterprises as part of the bill to reform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) – LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW IN 2007 (P.L. 110-49);
12) On July 14, 2005, Congressman Manzullo led the effort to defeat the East Asia Security Act (H.R. 3100), which would have placed more unilateral export controls on sales of U.S. products overseas and would have cost U.S. jobs. By the next week, he negotiated a compromise on this issue that was included as part of the Hyde amendment (H.Amdt. #465) to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act (H.R. 2601). This led to a significant revision of proposed enhanced export control regulations by the Bureau of Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce on U.S. sales to China (Final “China rule,” June 19, 2007 Federal Register, Vol. 72, No. 117 pages 33646 to 33662).
[13 not in original]
14) After an initial prediction that the Patent Reform Act of 2007 (H.R. 1908) would receive more than 300 votes in the House (or less than 100 votes in opposition), Congressman Manzullo helped to create a bipartisan coalition with Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME) to galvanize over 300 business, labor, and academic groups to oppose this legislation because it would weaken the U.S. patent system and make it easier for foreign companies to illegally copy American products and processes, putting American jobs at risk. On September 7, 2007, H.R. 1908 was eventually opposed by 175 House Members, thus derailing the “fast track” towards approval of this bill in the Senate. Even though the House passed H.R. 1908, the Senate took no further action on the legislation in 2008. This resulted in the Senate Judiciary Committee passing on April 2, 2009, a new and better – but not perfect – patent reform bill in 2009 (S. 515)
15) Right before Thanksgiving 2007, the bipartisan leadership of the tax-writing committees of Congress introduced the Tax Technical Corrections Act of 2007 (H.R. 4195). Included in this bill was a provision to eliminate the lower dividend tax rate (15 percent) provided to Interest-Charge Domestic International Sales Corporation (IC-DISCs), which are used by small manufacturers that export. If this provision became law, the tax rate on dividends from IC-DISCs would jump back up to 35 percent, as it was before the Republican-led Congress cut the dividend tax rate back in 2003. When Congressman Manzullo contacted the senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Jim McCrery, he was given assurances that this provision will be stripped out. On December 19, 2007, a new Tax Technical Corrections bill (HR 4839) was introduced and passed the House and Senate without any provision affecting IC-DISCs (P.L. 110-172).
16) In 1993, during debate in the House Foreign Affairs Committee concerning legislation to transfer decommissioned U.S. naval vessels to foreign countries, Congressman Manzullo questioned why we were giving all the ships away for nothing. He asked why we couldn’t sell them in some cases. As a result, the committee agreed to make changes to the bill and when it was brought to the floor, all but one of the vessels were sold or leased. It was eventually signed into law by the President (P.L. 103-54). It also set the precedent that future transfers of naval ships were no longer automatically given away. This policy change has saved taxpayers over $1 billion since 1993.
17) In 2008, Congressman Manzullo worked in a bipartisan manner with Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) to reform the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) at the State Department to improve the defense trade licensing process so that commercial items are not caught up in the complex and laborious licensing process for the export of munitions items (H.R. 4246/Subtitle A of Title I of H.R. 5916). The bill is now incorporated as part of Title VIII of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410), which passed the House on June 10, 2009.
MAJOR ADMINISTRATIVE SUCCESSES
1) In 2006, led massive community effort to convince the U.S. Postal Service to abandon its plan to transfer mail processing operations from Rockford to Palatine, preserving overnight mail delivery for zip codes beginning with 610 and 611; this decision also kept the Postal Service from overloading the Palatine distribution center, which could have delayed McHenry County mail further. Congressman Manzullo met directly with Postmaster General John Potter and convinced him to hold a public forum on the issue, which was attended by more than 500 people in Rockford;
2) Forced the Army in 2001 to purchase berets manufactured in the United States and forced the Air Force in 2003 to use specialty metals (titanium and nickel) manufactured in the United States for use in military aircraft in accordance with the Berry amendment (Action occurred following Small Business Committee hearing);
3) Stopped the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 2003 from proceeding with a proposed rule that would have devastated the American tourism industry by making it difficult for tourists from “visa waiver” countries (the developed world of Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand) to visit the United States beyond 30 days (Held Small Business Committee hearings on the issue);
4) Forced the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2002 to act expeditiously to increase the small business size status for travel agents so that they could become eligible for 9/11 disaster loans (Held Small Business Committee hearing);
5) In 2002 and 2003, convinced the Administration to first modify and then eliminate the steel tariffs that were devastating small steel-consuming businesses in Rockford and across the country (Held Small Business Committee hearings on issue);
6) Forced the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2004 to withdraw the proposed regulatory changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), which could have increased closing costs for home buyers and would have prevented consumers from choosing their own real estate support services, such as title searching, appraisals, surveys, pest inspections, and real estate brokerage services (Held Small Business Committee hearing on issue);
7) Worked with State Department in 2005 to create a one-year multiple-entry visa to allow Chinese business travelers to come to the United States to buy American products (Held Small Business Committee hearing on issue);
8) In 2002, convinced the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to increase transportation reimbursement rates to small portable x-ray providers, who were in danger of going out of business because CMS had not provided any adjustments in over 15 years. Without the mobile services, seniors would have faced hospitalization for the services (Held Small Business Committee hearing on issue);
9) In successive years since 2002, convinced the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to delay the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley on small public companies (Held Small Business Committee hearings on issue);
10) In 2005, Congressman Manzullo convinced the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Mark Everson, to not propose a tax withholding obligation on small businesses that hire independent contractors (Held Small Business Committee hearing on issue);
11) Convinced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) rule that reduces unnecessary paperwork for small businesses but still informs communities of the use of toxic materials by local firms (Held Small Business Committee hearings on issue). Unfortunately, Division E, Title IV, Section 425 of the “economic stimulus” package (P.L. 111-5), which Congressman Manzullo opposed, forbids the EPA to spend funds to implement this rule;
12) Convinced the CMS to improve payment policies for small ambulance providers (Held meetings and wrote a letter to CMS on issue);
13) Broke up several large proposed procurement contracts, allowing hundreds of small businesses to compete for government business (e.g., the Alliant information technology (IT) contract1; the Postal Service and the Army office supply contracts, etc);
14) Convinced the IRS to reduce paperwork burdens on small businesses (Held Small Business Committee on issue). This resulted in:
- 2003 – allowing small employers who use up to four vehicles to use the standard mileage reimbursement rate;
- 2004 – doubling the business expense threshold to $5,000 for filing the simplified expense form;
- 2004 – allowing employers with Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) deposits of less than $500 to file tax forms annually (instead of quarterly); and
- 2006 – allowing employers with a tax liability of less than $1,000 to file tax withholding forms annually (instead of quarterly).
16) In 2006, the SBA finalized a rule that now requires small businesses to recertify their size status at least once every five years to eliminate the practice of large businesses receiving procurement benefits normally reserved for small businesses (Held Small Business Committee hearing on this issue);
17) Co-authored legislation in 2007 to save Internet Radio by blocking a huge royalty rate increase and putting Internet radio at parity with satellite radio. On July 7, 2009, the parties reached a 5 year agreement to a lower set of royalties that webcasters would pay to musicians and record labels for their use of their recordings; thus saving Internet Radio;
18) In response to pressure from Congressman Manzullo when he introduced legislation to modernize the Automated Export System (AES), on June 2, 2008, the Bureau of the Census of the Commerce Department at long last issued final regulations that will help clarify a confusing U.S. export tracking system to help exporters avoid inadvertent errors and prevent unauthorized exports. Co-authored legislation in 2009 (H.R. 3515) to resolve the remaining issues still left unresolved from this rulemaking;
19) In response to pressure from Congress Manzullo when he introduced legislation to clarify the so-called “17(c)” issue, the State Department issued final regulations on August 14, 2008, to insure that civilian aviation parts and component exports are not treated like weapons in terms of the export licensing process (Final “17(c) rule,” August 14, 2008 Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 158 pages 47523 to 47526). This freed up approximately $2 billion in exports of aviation parts and components to our friends and allies.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 9:31 AM
