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Congressional Tug of War on Tax Issues: MUST Keep Pushing House and Senate for WOTC Renewal

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

Paul Suplizio of the WOTC Coalition gave an analysis this morning of the current situation in Congress as it relates to renewal of WOTC and other tax extenders. While there is little chance of of immediate passage, there are important political milestones to be laid at this time.

Paul’s correspondence is published below with permission.  I have added bold emphasis to draw your attention to a few key assertions.

*******

From: Paul Suplizio <wotc@cox.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 9:05 AM
Subject: Senator Reid/Speaker Boehner Bringing Competing Tax Plans Up Soon

July 17, 2012

The Senate will take another vote on the DISCLOSE Act today, probably its last, as the bill is being blocked by Republicans.

Senator Reid is telling senators he’ll bring up the President’s plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for taxpayers earning less than $250,000 in the near future. The bill will lay down a political marker before the election—it has small chance of passing against Republican opposition.

It’s uncertain whether Senator Reid’s bill will include the tax extenders. Even if included, they will be no closer to passage as odds are against Democrats’ mustering the required 60 votes.

Our best course is to urge senators to consider the time is ripe to bring forward a bi-partisan bill extending WOTC, and possibly other tax extenders, noting strong support on both sides of the aisle in the Senate and reiterated commitment to renewal of the tax extenders for 2012 by House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp.

The House plans to vote soon on keeping all the Bush tax cuts in place for another year; it’s possible at least some of the tax extenders will be included, but this bill will die in the Senate due to Democratic opposition.

However, it’s important the House go on record supporting passage of WOTC—the first time in this Congress for all target groups other than veterans. Therefore, we should urge Speaker Boehner, Chairman Camp and other members of the Ways and Means Committee, and your own member of Congress, to support including WOTC in the next tax bill to be brought to the floor.

Behind the scenes, the White House is spurring negotiations for a compromise on extending the Bush tax cuts before the election, thereby removing a big part of the “fiscal cliff” and a big uncertainty for the economy. The odds are negative, but the situation’s volatile and stranger things have happened. This makes getting WOTC into the House tax bill doubly important, because the House can pass its bill while the Senate cannot pass theirs, so the House bill could be the vehicle for a compromise.

PAUL E. SUPLIZIO
President, WOTC Coalition

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US House Signals: “No Tax Extenders Until After Election”

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

According to Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition, the US House of Representatives’ recently announced summer legislative schedule sends a clear message about the intentions of the House Republican Leadership – no tax extenders until after the election.

Tax Reform is officially dead for the year, as it’s not included in the summer legislative schedule announced today by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.  Instead, the only tax bill the House will take up this summer is extension of the Bush tax cuts.

WOTC and other tax extenders aren’t mentioned, which means House leaders are signaling they have no intention to consider them until after the election.

The ongoing delay in dealing with the tax extenders does not signal their death.  Remember that in 2006, tax extenders including WOTC were not passed until December, more than 11 months after their expiration.  Read more.

The following is published with permision.

******
From: Paul Suplizio wotc@cox.net
To: ‘Paul Suplizio’ wotc@cox.net
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 11:20 PM
Subject: House Schedules Vote on Bush Tax Cuts in July

May 25, 2012

Tax Reform is officially dead for the year, as it’s not included in the summer legislative schedule announced today by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Instead, the only tax bill the House will take up this summer is extension of the Bush tax cuts.

WOTC and other tax extenders aren’t mentioned, which means House leaders are signaling they have no intention to consider them until after the election.

(Post-election, several must-do tax measures must be acted on by year-end—Bush tax cuts, estate and payroll tax extension, alternative minimum tax relief, and others—WOTC and other tax extenders could be part of these bills.)

The economy isn’t percolating these days so pressure may build for a summer deal to extend the Bush tax cuts, as the unemployment situation favors another one-year extension. A Bush extension bill would provide an opportunity to attach WOTC and we are committed to making the attempt.

If the White House signals an interest in negotiations on Bush this summer, there’s a good chance Senate negotiators could bring WOTC and other extenders into the talks because Senators Reid and Baucus are committed to passing the extenders. We are told the White House is preparing an answer to Speaker Boehner on possible talks to help the economy.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has already characterized Leader Cantor’s proposal to extend the Bush cuts as “holding tax relief for middle class Americans hostage to tax cuts for the wealthy.” White House willingness to enter negotiations would be a sea-change.

Should negotiations to extend the Bush tax cuts occur during the next two months, we must be ready to overcome Republican resistance to including WOTC in any deal, so our current lobbying plan to engage House and Senate Republicans to support WOTC remains vital.

Should the Parties decline to negotiate, the House may pass an extension of Bush but the Senate won’t act on it. There are still the Highway and miscellaneous tariff bills, and perhaps others, that could serve as a vehicle for enacting WOTC and other extenders if we can get Senator McConnell and Senator Reid to agree to add an extenders amendment to one of those bills. (The only way bills pass in the Senate is when Reid and McConnell agree, as either Party can block the other.)

Both Reid and McConnell have made statements on the Senate floor supporting passage of the extenders, but the foot-dragging is on the Republican side where some senators want to prune the extenders list. To get action on WOTC, the best way to persuade Senator McConnell to move is to get a majority of Republican members of the Senate to urge him to delay no longer on passage of an extenders bill including WOTC.

PAUL E. SUPLIZIO
President, WOTC Coalition

*****

Note:  Bold emphasis is in original.

 

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Renewal of WOTC and Payroll Tax Cut Still Possible This Year

Monday, December 19th, 2011

If you’ve been following the news during the past few days, you might be aware that Congressional leaders are sparring over legislation to extend the existing payroll tax cut. Over the weekend, the Senate rejected the House’s proposal and responded with a proposed 2-month extension, obviously intended to buy time for further negotiations.

Neither version of the legislation included WOTC nor other sought after tax-extenders. This is not, however, the end of the game.

The limited 2-month extension is not looked upon favorably by the House Republican leadership, which is demanding a full year.  The House is scheduled to vote on the bill this evening.

According to Bloomberg,

With the House set to return to Washington [Monday], Republican leaders are studying their options, Laena Fallon, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in an e-mail.

When the House meets [Monday evening], it will either vote to amend the Senate-passed measure “so that it is responsible and in line with the needs of hard-working taxpayers and middle class families” or vote to appoint representatives to a House-Senate conference to reconcile differences between the two chambers, she said.

Got that? The House will either amend the Senate bill and return it. Or it will vote to appoint a conference with the Senate to negotiate revisions. If the House does call for a conference, the Senate leadership (aka Senator Harry Reid) could accept or reject it. But rejecting it in that case would result in a tax increase on January 1 as the payroll tax reduction expires. Not a pretty political sight.

If a conference is called, Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition sees still another opportunity to get WOTC and other tax extenders passed this year.

“If it gets to a conference, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan would be one of the conferees for the House (he was floor manager for the House bill) and Finance Chairman Max Baucus of Montana a likely conferee for the Senate.”

“Chairman Camp has been the target of much of our lobbying and knows the situation of WOTC and the extenders. Senator Baucus has been a champion for including WOTC and the other extenders in the payroll bill.”

If you have any opportunity to encourage Representative Dave Camp or Senator Max Baucus, now is the time. Senator Harry Reid and his friends in the Whitehouse should also be contacted.  Senator Reid will likely require encouragement from the Whitehouse to include WOTC and other tax extenders in any negotiated resolution to this legislative conflict.

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