BCA OPPOSES BILL THAT WOULD THREATEN FREE SPEECH FOR BUSINESSES BUT PROTECT BIG-MONEY LABOR UNIONS

The Business Council of Alabama has signed a letter to the U.S. Senate Rules Committee leadership objecting to a proposed bill that would curtail the political free speech rights of business. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., recently introduced DISCLOSE 2014 with numerous cosponsors, including Rules Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

The letter sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the bill does not propose genuine campaign finance reform but favors labor unions over corporations and business associations.

The bill has provisions that protect from disclosure the flow of money from union members to local union chapters and then to large international labor unions, the Chamber said. Labor unions spent big money on politics - $1.7 billion on electioneering and lobbying in 2012, the Chamber said, quoting the Wall Street Journal.

The legislation, which previously has been introduced, is designed to chill the political speech of corporations, business interests, and others, while giving labor unions special protections, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported.

The Chamber reported that the bill's sponsors say they're using the bill to get around free speech guarantees in the Supreme Court's 2010 decision, Citizens United. The Supreme Court ruled in that case that the First Amendment generally prohibits the suppression of political speech based on a speaker's identity.

The bill is S.2516, the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act of 2014. The Senate Rules Committee conducted a Wednesday hearing. The legislation's review could occur soon or shortly after the August congressional recess.

Schumer said the bill will combat special interests by requiring certain organizations that spend $10,000 or more on elections to file disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours and to file with each additional $10,000 or more in spending.

A disclosure report that includes the sources of all donations of $10,000 or more that the organization received during an election cycle is a requirement that would chill free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Instead of seeking to lower the world's highest corporate tax rate, President Obama is seeking legislation to retroactively bar U.S. corporations from using current tax law to seek lower tax rates abroad to protect shareholders, employees, and, ultimately, their businesses.

The cost to business would be $17 billion over 10 years.

Obama will ask Congress to approve punitive, retroactive legislation aimed mainly at eight corporations to make it impossible for a U.S. corporation to swallow up smaller foreign companies in order to mitigate exorbitant U.S. taxes that hurt them against foreign competition. The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

Most congressional Republicans have stood firm against any targeted inversion legislation, instead saying the problem illustrates how badly the entire tax code needs to be rewritten. The real issue, they say, is the U.S.'s 35 percent corporate tax rate, The Hill reported.

"The fact of the matter is that our tax code has made U.S. companies relatively less competitive," said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Obama administration officials told reporters on a conference call Thursday that the proposal, which was included in Obama's fiscal 2015 budget, would cost companies $17 billion over 10 years, Bloomberg reported. 

At least four Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee say they're not ready to back the president and party's push.

This week, senators Tom Carper of Delaware, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania all declined to back a stand-alone retroactive tax bill to limit inversions. "I still think the best way would be to do corporate tax reform," Warner said.

Republicans want to revamp the U.S. tax code and can block Senate legislation and stop the Republican-led House to limit inversions.

Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy said Thursday that she does not have the legal authority to fully enforce new rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, the Daily Caller reported.

McCarthy made the statement to Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe on how the EPA planned to get states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants if the agency can't fully enforce its own rules. "Many smart people have been reading this rule for the last two months, and they are at a loss for what this will actually look like," Inhofe said.

In June, the EPA proposed to require states to develop plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions from  existing power plant and submit emission reduction plans or have the federal government do it.

Inhofe said the EPA has the authority to force existing power plants to become more efficient but questioned whether the EPA currently has the legal authority to enforce other rules, such as whether the EPA can force states to reduce electricity demand by 1.5 percent. "No, sir," McCarthy said when questioned by Inhofe.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and 11 of his predecessors say that only a permanent fix of the Highway Trust Fund is required in order to keep up with America's commercial and business needs.

Secretaries Foxx, Ray LaHood, Mary Peters, Norman Mineta, Rodney Slater, Frederico Peņa, Samuel Skinner, Andrew Card, James Burnley, Elizabeth Dole, William Coleman, and Alan Boyd seek a long-term bipartisan solution to the fund that helps maintain America's roads.

The trust fund may be insolvent over the next month or two as the law that extended it in 2012 has not been renewed. Foxx recently warned states that the Trust Fund will start running out of money and he would have to severely prorate federal highway funding to states, endangering projects.

Foxx said the Trust Fund needs a "much larger, long-term investment," rather than the temporary fix proposed in a House bill that would provide funding until May.

The position of the current and former transportation secretaries was outlined in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report on Tuesday.

Industry to EPA: Climate rule 'note workable'

The Hill (Barron-Lopez 7/22) "Leading industry groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and the National Mining Association, are pressing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to heed warnings that its new climate regulation is 'not workable'.

"The Partnership for a Better Energy Future, which represents 140 organizations, sent a letter to EPA chief Gina McCarthy Monday night calling on her to extend the public comment period for the new rules, make drastic changes to the proposal and hold more public hearings across the U.S.

"'We are all going to tell the EPA that this regulation is simply not workable', Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), said on a call with reporters Tuesday to promote the industry push against the rules. The EPA has said it will hold four public hearings across the country on its proposal, which mandates that by 2030 states cut carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels.

"That's not enough, according to Timmons and the CEOs of the Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute, National Mining Association, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers and more. 'There is obviously going to be legal action in the future', Timmons said. 'We would like to see the rule altered and see the agency stop and listen to constituents and consumers that will be most impacted'.

Study: Obama to issue $34B in regulations after the midterm elections

The Hill (Goad 7/24) "A new report from the conservative American Action Forum (AAF) has identified tens of billions of dollars' worth of proposed regulations that are scheduled to be issued after November's midterm elections. The report, based on information culled from the Obama administration's formal rule-making agenda, follows a federal finding that politics were at play in the delays of major regulations ahead of the 2012 election.

"The AAF study counted 15 major regulations with associated projected costs of roughly $34 billion that are due in November, December and January. Among them are a series of contentious Environmental Protection Agency regulations, including a final rule imposing new limits [on] greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and standards for ground-level ozone. Various labor, energy and healthcare regulations also made the list.

"Administrations led by both parties have been accused of delaying regulations before elections and, in cases where the opposing party wins the White House, presidents issuing a flurry of 'midnight regulations'. While President Obama is not on the ticket this year, his administration has much at stake in November. If Republicans are able to secure control of the Senate, Obama's policy agenda would have even longer odds than it does now.