As Congress works to find agreement on a continuing resolution, the undersigned organizations ask that the overwhelmingly bipartisan S. 3011/H.R. 5735 be included in any stopgap spending package.  This legislation allows states and localities additional flexibility to use American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds for a range of transportation purposes. The ARP law provided $350 billion in state and local government relief funds and $10 billion in capital improvement assistance.  As states continue to recover from the pandemic, new economic headwinds and rising costs have emerged.

The undersigned organizations represent millions of Main Street businesses and employ tens of millions of workers and we oppose the Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act.  Inflation is at 40-year highs, we have had two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, and we are witnessing a shrinking small business sector, yet the Inflation Reduction Act does nothing to address these immediate issues even as it increases the burden of the tax code shouldered by America’s small and family-owned businesses.

We, the undersigned trade associations, representing hundreds of thousands of businesses across the nation that collectively employ millions of Americans, write to express our opposition to the inclusion of a tax on the financial statement income of certain businesses (“book tax”) in H.R. 5376, the “Inflation Reduction Act” reconciliation legislation. Economic analyses demonstrate the harmful impact of this provision. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that nearly 50% of the burden of this tax would fall on manufacturers.

We, the undersigned organizations representing millions of Main Street businesses and employing tens of millions of American workers, urge you not to raise taxes on small, individually, and family-owned businesses as part of any effort to enact a reconciliation bill this year.

The Coalition for Workplace Safety (“CWS”) submits these comments in response to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) Proposed Rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (87 Fed. Reg. 18528, March 30, 2022). The CWS is comprised of associations and employers who believe in improving workplace safety through cooperation, assistance, transparency, clarity, and accountability. The CWS believes that workplace safety is everyone’s concern.

Thank you for your leadership in implementing the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This investment in our infrastructure comes at a critical time as our nation navigates the ongoing supply chain crisis and inflation.

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA), the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) and the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) represent thousands of companies who are responsible for creating and supplying construction materials needed to build our infrastructure and communities.

I’m writing on behalf of the Opportunity America Jobs and Careers Coalition to express our support for Congress’s efforts to advance reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). We’re encouraged to see the legislation come to the floor and find things to admire in both Democratic and Republican versions – the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022 (H.R. 7309) and the Republican substitute amendment. We hope that when a law is finally passed, it will be bipartisan and borrow from both proposals.

The Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity (PPWO or Partnership) and the 93 undersigned organizations urge the Department of Labor’s (DOL or Department) Wage and Hour Division to abandon or at least postpone issuance of its announced proposed rulemaking altering the overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Due to significant concerns with supply chain disruptions, workforce shortages, inflationary pressures, and the shifting dynamics of the American workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic, any rule change now would be ill-advised.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides you with a unique opportunity to directly confront the supply-chain challenges that are adversely impacting the U.S. economy and the daily lives of all Americans. We urge you to dedicate as much as allowable by law in discretionary grants for FY 2022 to support projects that will facilitate and ease the movement of goods. Over the past two years, the supply chain has endured extreme slowdowns due to pandemic-related pressures.