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-- June 14, 2000
In this issue:
The biggest news is all the features available at the new site. There'll be shopping available through direct links to 20 brand name sites such as AT&T, Omaha Steaks, L.L. Bean, and Bass Pro Shops. News features will include daily news stories and features from Associated Press of interest to self-employed and small business people, along with CA's own Self-Employed Country magazine. Of course, our email Legislative Action Update newsletters will be included along with other legislative advocacy news and information. New web services will be offered, including free e-mail, free classified ads, and free Yellow Pages. And we'll continue to have CA's information sections on state finance programs for beginning farmers and ranchers, and state high- risk health insurance pools. There will be prizes and drawings to drive traffic to the site, and help keep members like you coming back. Register for your free on-line membership and be entered into a drawing for a trip to Hawaii. Refer CA to a friend and be entered for a $100 gift certificate to one of CA's shopping partners. The web experts are tuning up the new site now for the July kick-off. Until then, you can find CA on the web at our longstanding address at http://www.cainc.org/. Once the new site is live, you'll be transferred to it. We'll keep you posted as it develops.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES CA-BACKED BILL TO ELIMINATE THE DEATH TAX On Friday, the House passed H.R. 8, the "Death Tax Elimination Bill". Chiefly authored by Representatives Jennifer Dunn-R-Wash. and John Tanner, D-Tenn., H.R. 8 calls for a gradual phasing out federal estate taxes over a 10-year period. CA was a prime member of a coalition of more than 100 national organizations that have been pushing the legislation in Washington. CA President Wayne Nelson has testified numerous times for estate tax reform and elimination of the tax before the House Ways and Means Committee and other committees of Congress over the past few years. Considered an expert on the issue, Nelson has also been featured in stories on estate planning in national publications like Progressive Farmer and others. The bill received bipartisan support with more than 40 Democrats joining a majority of the Republicans in the House to vote for the legislation. While the House vote was large in enough to override a veto in that body, prospects are uncertain in the Senate, however, and the President has signaled opposition and a likely veto. The House vote represents a major achievement for CA and other groups that have worked diligently on estate tax reform for many years. It's a major step forward, and it will be a shame if final passage is not done this year.
SMALL BUSINESS TAX BREAK BILLS STILL AWAIT CONGRESSIONAL ACTION IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE There are several tax proposals, reported in the last issue of CA's Legislative Action Update newsletter, that are still alive and awaiting action by House/Senate conference committees. The list includes several tax revisions that are of keen interest to CA's self-employed, small business and agriculture members. The are included in the Minimum Wage Bill now in conference. Among them:
EMERGENCY FARM AID PACKAGE PASSED BY CONGRESS, ALONG WITH CA-BACKED CROP INSURANCE OVERHAUL The long-awaited overhaul and expansion of the Federal Crop Insurance Program has finally been approved by Congress. As anticipated, the measure also included an emergency farm aid package for the third year in a row that was made necessary due to persistent and extraordinarily low prices across most of the major farm crops and commodity sectors. The farm emergency aid included $7.1 billion to raise support payments, similar to the two previous years, for grain and cotton growers. It also includes payments for soybeans, peanuts, tobacco, fruits and vegetable growers. While export markets and shown signs of coming back, ag economists say a recovery in the farm economy is at least a year away and without the enhanced farm payments of the past two years the farm economy would have been in a shambles.
Crop insurance reform has been a key goal of CA's Campaign for Family Agriculture, which seeks a stronger economic safety net and improved financial management tools for farmers and ranchers. Crop farmers for years have complained that, even under the newer federal crop insurance program , the protection levels in the case of crop failure were either too low, or the premiums for the higher coverage were so expensive it simply didn't make economic sense. The new bill, H.R. 2559, the Agricultural Risk Protection Act, provides more subsidies to cut the costs of the higher levels of crop production. Premium assistance, for example, goes up from the current 32% to 59% for the 70/100 coverage; from 24% to 55% for the 75/100 coverage, and from 17% to 48% for 80/100 coverage. The conference bill also includes the Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000 which will support research on the co-production of food and biochemicals from a single plant to find ways to use the entire plant for more cost efficient production of bio-based new uses fuel and chemical end products.
VALUE-ADDED AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT TAX CREDIT LEGISLATION BACKED BY CA You may have seen stories in the High Plains Journal and other national and regional ag publications late last month about CA's endorsement of the Value-Added Agricultural Investment Tax Credit Act, introduced by Representatives Jim Talent, R-Mo. and John Thune, R-S.D. The bill calls for allowing producers a 50% investment tax credit up to $30,000 for investing in value-added agricultural processing enterprises like ethanol co-ops, soybean crushing plants, corn, wheat, livestock and other food processing plants. In a statement released at a press conference in Washington at the introduction of the bill, CA Board Vice President Roger Gussiaas, a Carrington, N.D. farmer, said, "This is a very significant co-op development proposal, and it comes at a very critical time for agriculture. Farmers simply must gain a stronger equity stake further up the food processing chain. The farmers' share of the food dollar is at an all-time low. Theirs is great opportunity today for farmers in value-added agriculture with processed food prices going up each year, and farm commodity prices staying the same or going down." He noted these are different types of businesses and there is no guarantee of success. "While the bill won't eliminate the risk inherent in these investments, it would provide meaningful help." Expanding farmer participation and ownership in value-added enterprises is one of the long term goals of CA's Campaign for Family Agriculture.
CA LEGISLATIVE BREAKFAST ON CAPITAL HILL HEARS FROM HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE OFFICIAL Tom Giles, legal counsel to the House of Representatives Commerce Committee and a key official at the center of legislative proposals dealing with health care and tax reforms affecting small business and the self-employed, was the keynote speaker at the annual CA Legislative Breakfast on Capitol Hill June 2. The breakfast is an annual event for members and membership representatives taking part in CA's Washington D.C. trip. Giles joined CA President Wayne Nelson in giving an inside-Washington update on prospects for passage of health care and small business legislation in the current election year.
FEEDBACK WANTED CA welcomes member comments, ideas and thoughts on these and other legislative issues. Email us back your reply. Or give us a call and ask for Wayne Nelson, President, or Bruce Abbe, Vice President of Public Affairs at 1-800-432-3276. Help CA build our grassroots legislative action program. Email your reply to - publicaffairs@cainc.org.
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© 2000 CA FOR THE SELF-EMPLOYED |
You'll soon be able to find a new CA
website at a new address. The new site will cater to the needs and
interests of the self-employed.
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