NRCA member Houck Group participates in congressional tax roundtable
On Aug. 1, NRCA traveled to New Freedom, Pa., for a Congressional Tax Team event hosted by Congressman Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.). Mike Signor of NRCA member Houck Group, Harrisburg, Pa., provided testimony to the panel regarding the value of the 199A qualified business income deduction for pass-through businesses. This deduction is set to expire at the end of 2025 without congressional action. Smucker and his colleague, Congressman Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), heard from a wide range of industries—including a dairy farmer, hair salon owner and medical device manufacturer—who all emphasized what the deduction means for their businesses and how it has helped them invest in their communities.
The Senate Appropriations Committee passes a bill to increase Perkins CTE State Grants
On Aug. 1, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the fiscal year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies funding bill. The bill would provide $80 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, representing roughly a 1% increase for the department, which contrasts with the 14% cut the House Appropriations Committee approved earlier this year.
This legislation provides for a $35 million increase compared with fiscal year 2024 for Perkins State Grants, representing a 2.5% increase. Although the House version of this bill cut funding for many programs, it provided a $10 million increase for Perkins State Grants. Other highlights in the Senate bill include: $2.9 billion for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act formula grants, which is equal to fiscal year 2024; $290 million for Registered Apprenticeships, which is a $5 million increase compared with fiscal year 2024; and $110 million for YouthBuild, a community-based pre-apprenticeship program that provides job training and educational services for opportunity youth ages 16-24 who left school without a secondary diploma. Congress will continue negotiations regarding the details, but it is expected to pass a short-term bill later this summer to fund the government after Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.
New bipartisan coalition on border security and immigration reform
Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) and Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas) are organizing a coalition of lawmakers to focus on Bipartisan Common Sense Solutions for Border Security and Immigration. Suozzi and Luttrell serve on the House Homeland Security Committee, and the effort evolved from their discussions after committee hearings focused on problems at the U.S. southern border. NRCA attended a roundtable meeting with Suozzi, Luttrell and other lawmakers in late July to kick off the effort. They expect to begin with the bipartisan border security proposal negotiated by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in early 2024, which stalled in the Senate, and consider additional border security capabilities and reforms to immigration policy. The lawmakers are working with the Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus—a coalition of business, faith and immigrant advocacy groups of which NRCA is a member—which aims to develop bipartisan solutions to border security and immigration policy. Breaking through the gridlock regarding this highly polarizing issue will be difficult in the near term, but NRCA welcomes renewed efforts to address these issues.
Progress regarding workforce development legislation stalls
Negotiations among key senators on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions have stalled regarding legislation to reauthorize and reform the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which provides funding for workforce training programs operated at the state and local levels. NRCA supports reforming workforce training programs to help members address workforce development needs and has made this issue a priority. In June, the committee released a bipartisan “discussion draft,” which contains reforms and innovations that have great potential to make workforce programs more responsive to the needs of employers, especially small businesses. NRCA supports most provisions in the discussion draft and recommended additional reforms contained in similar legislation (H.R. 6655) passed by the House in April. However, Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is insisting on keeping in the legislation a “blacklisting” provision to deny participation in workforce programs for employers with even the smallest violation of federal labor laws, which NRCA and other groups strongly oppose. Negotiations are ongoing, but given this impasse, the outlook for further progress on the bill is uncertain.
