August 2022 Government Affairs Update

Congress Passes Budget Reconciliation Bill

Democrats in the House and Senate recently voted to pass the “Inflation Reduction Act” which is a budget reconciliation package that contains $433 billion for energy and climate change programs and Affordable Care Act (ACA) credits. According to Democratic leaders, the bill would raise approximately $700 billion in new federal revenue by enacting a 15% corporate minimum tax on businesses with average annual income over $1 billion, enhancing IRS tax enforcement and reforming prescription drug pricing. The bill also enacts a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks and extends excess business loss limitation rules for certain pass-through businesses for two years through 2028.

Due to budget reconciliation rules, Democrats were able to pass the bill with a simple majority vote in each chamber of Congress. No Republicans voted in support. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law shortly.

President Biden Signs Semiconductor Manufacturing Bill

Congress recently passed bipartisan legislation to boost U.S. competitiveness with China by allocating over $200 billion toward domestic semiconductor manufacturing and science research. Semiconductor chips are integral components used in automobiles, appliances, smartphones and other technology. The Chips and Science Act includes $52 billion for U.S. companies producing computer chips as well as a 25% tax credit for those companies that invest in chip plants in the U.S. It also provides tens of billions of dollars to fund scientific research and to spur the innovation and development of other U.S. technologies.

The original version of the legislation also included trade and labor provisions but was scaled down to target U.S. chip production and scientific research due to disagreements between the House and the Senate. President Biden signed the bill into law last week.

House Committee Approves Heat Illness Prevention Bill

The House Education and Labor Committee recently voted approved H.R. 2193, the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, which would direct OSHA to establish an enforceable standard for hazardous heat stress in the workplace and include several new requirements on employers to protect workers from heat illness and injury such as paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, limitations on time exposed to heat, and emergency response for workers with heat-related illness. It would also direct employers to provide training and hazard advisories to their employees about heat stress in the language their employees understand and in a format appropriate for their literacy and education levels.

The bill cleared the committee on a party-line vote and now goes to the House floor for a final vote. It is unclear whether the Senate will take up the bill should it pass the House. BSCAI is tracking the bill in Congress and will continue to keep members updated on the latest developments. 

Department of Commerce Launches Job Quality Tool

The U.S. Department of Commerce recently launched the Job Quality Toolkit, which provides strategies and actions to help small-and-medium-sized organizations recruit and retain a high-performing workforce. The Toolkit also includes eight case studies of organizations that have committed to increasing the quality of the jobs they offer. Each case study explains how companies have worked to improve the quality of the jobs they offer by focusing on one or more drivers.

The Toolkit builds on the “Good Jobs Principles” that the Departments of Commerce and Labor published in June and was informed by the input of several job quality experts over the past year.  The Toolkit offers numerous strategies for all employers to consider through a cycle of dialogue with their workforce, action, and measurement.

The Toolkit’s strategies are organized around eight drivers, or essential elements: Recruitment & Hiring, Benefits, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility (DEIA), Empowerment & Representation, Job Security & Working Conditions, Organizational Culture, Pay, and Skills & Career Advancement.