House Ways and Means Committee Considers its Jobs Bill

In his first hearing as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) pushed for legislation that would provide tax incentives for small businesses and lending assistance for infrastructure projects. AGC sent a letter to committee members in advance of the markup highlighting its support for several provisions, including:

• Relief for small businesses from IRS Section 6707A penalties, which can be stiff for contractors who unwittingly fail to disclose listed transactions to the IRS.
• Extension of the Build America Bonds (BAB) program. State and local governments have used the widely successful BABs to finance more than $80 billion in infrastructure programs.
• Removal of the private activity bond volume cap for water and wastewater projects. The private activity bond cap removal is expected to leverage nearly $2 billion in private sector dollars waiting on the sidelines.
• Extension and reallocation of the Recovery Zone Bond program. The Recovery Zone Bonds will be extended and reallocated based on unemployment in a locality, allowing the hardest hit areas to receive a higher amount of funding opportunities.

AGC asked for the legislation to include "Fresh Start" and ensure that all of the losses are subject to 30-year amortization for pension plans, as pension relief was included in early drafts of the bill, but was dropped from the legislation prior to the markup. One section of the bill that AGC opposed in its letter would apply continuous levy to employment tax liability of certain federal contractors.  This provision would allow the IRS to levy employment taxes on federal contractors prior to a Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing. AGC opposes a collection of a tax that has not been subjected to due process. The full House is expected to consider the new legislation as early as next week.