On July 10, the U.S. House Committee on Small Business held a hearing titled, “"Main Street Realities: Examining the Current Economic Landscape in America.” Ahead of the hearing, ABC sent a letter to the committee expressing concerns with the numerous regulations that generate substantial burdens for America’s small businesses and loopholes in the Regulatory Flexibility Act that federal agencies use to implement these regulations at the expense of America’s small business community.

Specifically, ABC noted the impact of the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule on Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as the final rule changing overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Leading up to the hearing, ABC’s Chief Economist Anirban Basu spoke with committee staff to discuss the challenges facing small business contractors.

On May 22, the U.S. House Committee on Small Business held a hearing titled, “Burdensome Regulations: Examining the Biden Administration’s Failure to Consider Small Businesses.” Prior to the hearing, ABC sent a letter detailing concerns with the Biden administration’s rulemakings that disregard small businesses, diminish their ability to compete and undermine their integral role in building America’s infrastructure. The letter specifically highlighted the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rules on overtime and Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s final rule on the Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects.

You can watch the full hearing on the committee’s YouTube channel.

On May 8, the U.S. House Committee on Small Business held a hearing titled, “Stifling Innovation: Examining the Impacts of Regulatory Burdens on Small Businesses in Healthcare.” Prior to the hearing, ABC sent a letter calling on Congress to provide compliance relief for employers by streamlining reporting requirements brought on by the Affordable Care Act.

ABC also highlighted its work with the Partnership for Employer-Sponsored Coverage that has laid out principles and priorities that are critical to ensuring employment-based health insurance thrives.

You can watch the full committee meeting here.

On Feb. 15, the U.S. House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure held a hearing titled “Leveling the Playing Field: Challenges Facing Small Business Contracting.” ABC sent a letter detailing the significant hurdles small businesses face while competing for federal construction projects, specifically through the Biden administration’s implementation of government mandated project labor agreements and a new Independent Contractor Classification standard. Cited in the letter was ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator that declined to 8.4 months in January, according to an ABC member survey conducted from Jan. 22 to Feb. In addition, the National Federation of Independent Business’ recent study showed that owners who expect higher real sales volumes fell 12% last month and a larger share of small business owners reported lower earnings over the last three months.

You can view the full hearing here.

On Feb. 1, ABC joined a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committees on Small Business and of the Judiciary supporting reform in implementation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. You can find a link to the coalition letter here. The letter urges legislative action to strengthen the meaningful input of small businesses in federal regulatory processes and ensure that the intent of the Regulatory Flexibility Act is fulfilled. The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) encourages federal regulatory agencies to consider negative impacts of new mandates in an effort to prevent excessive red tape on small businesses.

Loopholes in the RFA allow federal regulators to bypass the law's requirements and misrepresent costs of new mandates.

On Dec. 13, ABC sent a letter to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce prior to its markup of key bills impacting the construction industry.

The letter highlights ABC’s support for H.R. 6655, the bipartisan A Stronger Workforce for America Act, which would reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act for the first time since 2014 and includes several ABC-backed provisions that support an all-of-the-above approach to workforce development, ensures more dollars for tangible worker programs, better aligns programs with in-demand jobs, and allows for better evaluation of WIOA programs. ABC also supported the committee’s markup of H.J. Res. 98, a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the Biden administrations harmful joint employer final rule, and H.R. 3400, the Small Business Before Bureaucrats Act, to modernize the National Labor Relations Board’s decades old jurisdictional standards to exempt more small businesses from their regulatory overreach. ABC’s letter also expresses concerns with H.R. 6585, the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act, which, while seeking to expand Pell Grants to high-quality, short-term workforce programs, could exclude some vital construction workforce education and upskilling programs.

ABC also joined with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace to comment on the Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing. The hearing examined the ABC-supported Employee Rights Act (H.R. 2700), Modern Worker Empowerment Act (H.R. 5513), and Save Local Business Act (H.R. 2826), which are designed to protect workers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and the economy from a rogue National Labor Relations Board.

With the Corporate Transparency Act’s new reporting requirements set to take effect beginning January 1, ABC joined a letter signed by more than 80 trade associations calling on Congress to enact the Protecting Small Business Information Act of 2023 (H.R. 4035). Authored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, the legislation would delay implementation of the CTA until Treasury finishes the necessary rulemaking process, giving affected businesses much-needed relief from the poorly conceived and drafted rules.

The CTA will subject tens of millions of small businesses and other entities to increased paperwork, compliance costs, privacy risks, substantial fines, and even jail.

Congressman Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., introduced the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 4721, legislation which would permanently extend Section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code, which is slated to expire in 2025. Smucker’s bipartisan legislation is cosponsored by 99 Members, including two Democrats, and is supported by all Republican Members of the Ways & Means Committee.

Section 199A, which was adopted as part of the landmark 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, allows for a 20 percent deduction of qualified income for pass-through businesses. Most small business are structured as a pass-through and this section was included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to promote equity in America’s tax code between small businesses on main street with larger corporations.

ABC joined over 160 organizations in support of the legislation, and also supported mirror legislation in the Senate introduced by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont. Earlier this year.

On April 25, ABC sent a letter of support for House Republican Leadership’s proposal to increase the debt ceiling while tackling Washington spending in a proposal that would save $4.5 trillion through slowed growth in government spending and cuts to priorities of the Biden administration.

The Limit, Save, Grow Act would establish spending levels for fiscal year 2024 at FY22 levels and allow only for 1% annual growth over the next 10 years, in exchange for raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or through March 31, 2024, whichever comes first. You can view a one-pager of the bill.

The bill also goes after the White House’s priorities, including rescinding funding under the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, tax and spend reconciliation package from last year for IRS enforcement funding that will burden American taxpayers and small businesses with more audits and increased compliance costs; repealing ABC-opposed IRA energy tax credits that include burdensome and discriminatory prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements; ending the President’s executive action on student loan forgiveness; and reclaiming unspent COVID funds.

Additionally, the bill includes ABC-supported legislation, the REINS Act to block excessively burdensome agency rules and regulations, and H.R. 1 to unleash America’s energy production and ensure American energy independence.

On April 18, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote to override President Joe Biden’s veto of H.J. Res. 27, a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers’ 2023 revised Waters of the United States regulation. ABC has key voted today’s vote and issued an action alert.

President Biden vetoed H.J. Res. 27, which passed both chambers of Congress with strong bipartisan support. While the override is unlikely to garner the 2/3 vote of the chamber required, this resolution rebukes the Biden administration’s flawed, burdensome and overreaching WOTUS rule that will result in sweeping changes to the federal government’s authority to regulate what is considered a navigable water, with enormous impacts on small businesses, developers and contractors. The Biden WOTUS rule is set to cause building delays due to regulatory uncertainty, increased permitting and mitigation costs, and make it more difficult and expensive to grow food, produce energy and build critical infrastructure for the 21st century.