U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) addressed members of the Business Council of Alabama's policy committees today in a conference call hosted by BCA's Federal Affairs Committee.

Currently in her second term representing Alabama's Second Congressional District, Congressman Roby is a member of the House Appropriations Committee in December 2013. She serves on three Appropriations subcommittees: Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies; and Legislative Branch.

During Friday's call, she discussed the Affordable Care Act and its effect on working Americans. She discussed real life stories of families who are now faced with deciding between having health insurance for their family or paying the mortgage.

Roby also discussed her effort to repeal a provision, which was part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, that reduces working-age military pensions beginning in 2015.    

The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday reissued the 'Ambush Election' rule, which would shorten the required time between when a union election is announced and when it is held. The NLRB issued a similar rule in December 2011, which was later invalidated by the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

Following the release of the rule, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) President and CEO Jay Timmons issued this statement criticizing it:

"This retread of the 'ambush election' rule shortens the time period for a union vote, strips employers and employees of the ability to get critical information before the vote and is absolutely unnecessary. In fact, it's a guaranteed way to create conflict where none currently exists. The NLRB even admits that elections are being held without issue or delay.

"The NLRB is recycling a bad rule in an attempt to overturn more than 75 years of settled labor policy as it continues to implement a radical, agenda-driven policy," Timmons said. Manufacturers are prepared to fight this battle again on all fronts. We will not let this aggressive overreach stand. Ambush elections hurt manufacturers in the United States and undermine the strong and productive relationships between managers and employees."

The BCA is Alabama's exclusive affiliate to the NAM.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said the marginal effective tax rate on corporate investment is 35.3 percent in the U.S., higher than in any other developed country. The tax rate on corporate investment is the tax impact on capital investment as a portion of the cost of capital.

The OECD said the U.S. has had the highest METR rate in the OECD since 2007 when Canada's multiyear program of corporate tax reform brought its METR below the G-7 average. "Nonetheless, the White House and Treasury Department continue to assert that the U.S. has a lower METR than Canada by failing to properly account for sales and property taxes," OECD said.

The U.S. METR varies by industry, from 26.7 percent for transportation to 39.3 percent for communications. The OECD contends that excessively high U.S. corporate tax rates have shrunk the U.S. corporate sector and reduced corporate tax revenues. Marginal effective tax rate (METR) analysis has been a well-documented and extensively applied analytical tool for measuring tax impacts on investment and capital allocation distortions since the 1980s, OECD said. "The statutory corporate income tax rate of the United States is infamously one of the highest in the world, while effective tax rates on capital investments appear to be high and dispersed," the OECD said.