On April 7, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released a proposed national privacy standard. Sen. Cantwell and Rep. McMorris Rodgers chair the committees with jurisdiction over the proposal and so, although its enactment is a long shot this year, it is a proposal that privacy rights interests are taking very seriously.

Democrats have offered one bill to create a federal paid leave program and another to shorten the standard workweek to 32 hours.

On March 8, the Department of Labor (DOL) sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review its proposed new fiduciary rule. This is the last step in the regulatory process prior to finalization of a rule. OIRA is an agency within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a White House agency.

Congress has passed, and President Biden has signed into law a “minibus” government funding bill that provides discretionary funding for six of the 12 required appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2024. The new funding law, H.R.4366, does not include the industry-sought rider to prevent the Department of Labor (DOL) from further work on its proposed new fiduciary rule.

President Biden’s March 7 State of the Union (SOTU) speech teed up a raft of issues important to NAIFA members and their clients. These are issues that will shape the pre-November election campaigns and the Congressional agenda for both 2024 and 2025.

The $7.3 trillion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Biden budget proposal, released March 11, includes $4.9 trillion in new taxes—mostly in corporate and “tax the rich” proposals—with $3 trillion of that allocated to deficit reduction. The budget spending proposals for FY 2025 are in line with the spending targets set in last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). According to the budget documents, it would reduce the deficit by some $3 trillion over ten years.

The House passed H.R.7024, a tax bill that would enhance several key business tax rules as well as the child tax credit, has hit a hurdle in the Senate. A key Senator (GOP leader of the Finance Committee) and a number of his colleagues want changes to the bill before they will support it.

A bicameral GOP resolution to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) now-final worker classification rule has been introduced. Votes on it in both the House and Senate are expected later this month.

Last month, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced seven warning signs that Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) claims may be in error and urged businesses with ERTC claims to revisit their eligibility status. They said businesses should resolve any issues prior to March 22, the deadline for the agency’s voluntary disclosure program.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, has vowed to stop use of private placement life insurance (PPLI) as a tax shelter. He calls PPLI a “$40 billion tax shelter.” Sen. Wyden conducted an 18-month investigation into PPLI and said the results of the investigation prove that PPLI is used only by the ultra-wealthy and serves little to no true-life insurance purpose. Instead, he said, it is no more than a tax shelter for the ultra-wealthy that is not generally available.

On February 5, Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Mike Thompson (D-CA), both senior members of the tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee, introduced legislation that would allow use of health savings account (HSA) and flexible spending arrangement (FSA) funds to pay parents’ medical expenses. The Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act, H.R.7222, removes the requirement that parents be dependents for tax purposes before HSA/FSA money can be used to pay their medical expenses on a tax-free basis.

On February 14, a subcommittee of the House Education & the Workforce Committee held a hearing on the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) proposed new fiduciary rule. Generally, most witnesses and the subcommittee’s Republicans lambasted the proposed rule, saying it would adversely impact retirement savers.

Business groups are fighting back against the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) proposed rescission of the rules governing association health plans (AHPs). The groups say AHPs are a way to make affordable health insurance accessible to small businesses and self-employed individuals.

On February 27, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted, 11 to 10 along party lines, to send President Biden’s renomination of Julie Su as Secretary of the Department of Labor (DOL) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

In February, Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN) introduced the House companion bill of the Prove It Act with Reps. Yadira Caraveo (D-CO) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX). Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Joni Ernst introduced the companion legislation last year. The Prove It Act aims to give small entities a seat at the table during the regulatory process and aims to limit regulatory burden on small businesses.

On January 18, just one day before the deadline after which the government would have begun its partial shutdown, the Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) that extends current government funding levels until March 1 for four of the 12 appropriations bills and March 8 for the remaining eight. The vote was 77 to 18. Just hours later, the House followed suit, passing the measure under suspension of the rules. The vote was 314 to 108. President Biden signed it into law on January 19.

On January 31, the House of Representatives passed a $78 billion tax package, H.R.7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. The bill contains some provisions that may be helpful to NAIFA members, i.e., increased expensing, a higher reporting threshold, and larger business loan interest deductibility. It also contains, as an offset, a provision that cuts off new ERTC claims.

The individual income, capital gains, and estate tax rules enacted in 2017 expire at the end of 2025. These were significant tax cuts and already Congress and the private sector are gearing up for a major battle over which of these rates and rules should be extended or allowed to sunset. One such rule that is key to many NAIFA members is section 199A, the 20 percent deduction for certain noncorporate business income.

A coalition of small business groups is urging Congress to extend by 90 days the proposed cut-off of employee retention tax credit (ERTC) claims. The Coalition to Preserve American Jobs is arguing that cutting off claims on January 31 would be “slamming the door on many eligible small business owners” right as the tax filing season begins.

On February 7, Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), ranking member of the House Ways & Means Committee and a chief architect of SECURE and SECURE 2.0, reintroduced his automatic IRA program bill. The bill would impose a penalty tax on employers with more than ten employees that do not have a retirement savings plan in place if they do not set up an automatic enrollment IRA program (or another form of automatic contribution retirement savings plan) for their workers. The bill would not require employer contributions. It would allow employees to opt-out. And it provides a tax credit for small employers to defray the administrative cost of the program.