Today in Congress

The House takes up a bill that would provide a one-time tax break for companies with fewer than 500 employees (HR 9), despite Democratic opposition and a White House veto threat.

House
Bills Introduced Yesterday
By Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas: H.R. 4394. A bill to provide incentives to encourage financial institutions and small businesses to provide continuing financial education to customers, borrowers, and employees, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and Small Business, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

By Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas: H.R. 4375. A bill to provide a taxpayer bill of rights for small businesses; to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Hearing Today
Committee on Small Business, Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access, hearing entitled "Equity Finance: Catalyst for Small Business Growth'', 10 a.m., 2360 Rayburn. 

Senate
Bill Introduced Yesterday
By Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Ms. SNOWE, Mrs. HUTCHISON, and Mr. HELLER): S. 2291. A bill to provide a taxpayer bill of rights for small businesses; to the Committee on Finance.

House
The House has scheduled a vote on a short-term extension of transportation programs.

Markup
House Ways and Means marks up a small-business tax deduction bill (HR 9). 10 a.m., 1100 Longworth
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=287159

Upcoming Hearing
Committee on Small Business, March 28, Full Committee, hearing entitled ``Large and Small Businesses: How Partnerships Can Promote Job Growth'', 1 p.m., 2360 Rayburn.

Senate
Upcoming Hearing
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship: March 29, to hold hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2013 for the Small Business Administration, 10 a.m., SR-428A. 

Senate
The Senate is not in session today.

Yesterday
Senate passed H.R. 3606, Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act, as amended.

Bills Introduced
By Mr. KERRY (for himself and Ms. LANDRIEU): S. 2227. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand and simplify the credit for employee health insurance expenses of small employers; to the Committee on Finance.

By Mr. UDALL of Colorado (for himself, Ms. SNOWE, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Mr. BEGICH, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. BROWNof Ohio, Ms. COLLINS, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. FRANKEN, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. INOUYE, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. NELSONof Florida, Mr. PAUL, Mr. REED, Mr. REID, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, and Mr. WYDEN): S. 2231. A bill to amend the Federal Credit Union Act, to advance the ability of credit unions to promote small business growth and economic development opportunities, and for other purposes; read the first time.

House
The House is not in session today.

Yesterday
Committee on Small Business: Full Committee held a markup of the following: 

• H.R. 3985, the ``Building Better Business Partnerships Act of 2012''; 
• H.R. 3987, the ``Small Business Protection Act of 2012''; 
• H.R. 4081, the ``Contractor Opportunity Protection Act of 2012''; 
• H.R. 4206, the ``Contracting Oversight for Small Business Jobs Act of 2012''; and 
• H.R. 4203, the ``Women's Procurement Program Improvement Act of 2012''. 

Bills Introduced
By Mr. PALLONE: H.R. 4252. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand and simplify the credit for employee health insurance expenses of small employers; to the Committee on Ways and Means.

House

Bill Introduced Yesterday
By Ms. MOORE: H.R. 4226. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the full exclusion applicable to qualified small business stock; to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Today

• House Republicans will unveil legislation Wednesday that would provide a large new tax break to smaller companies. *See CQ article below
• The House takes up a bill that would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board and place caps on some medical malpractice awards.

Hearings

• Committee on Small Business, Full Committee, hearing entitled ``A Job Creation Roadmap: How America's Entrepreneurs Can Lead Our Economic Recovery'', 1 p.m., 2360 Rayburn. 
• Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, hearing on FY 2013 Budget Request for Small Business Administration, 2 p.m., 2359 Rayburn.

Markup Tomorrow

• March 22, Full Committee, markup of the following: H.R. 3985, the ``Building Better Business Partnerships Act of 2012''; H.R. 3987, the ``Small Business Protection Act of 2012''; H.R. 4081, the ``Contractor Opportunity Protection Act of 2012''; the ``Contracting Oversight for Small Business Jobs Act of 2012''; and the ``Women's Procurement Program Improvement Act of 2012'', 10 a.m., 2360 Rayburn. 

Senate
Today
The Senate plans a 10:30 a.m. cloture vote on the small-business capital bill. If the Senate agrees to limit debate, then the 30 hours of post-cloture debate on the measure would expire Wednesday evening (HR 3606).

Hearing Tomorrow

• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship: March 22, to hold hearings to examine small business investment companies and their role in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, 10 a.m., SR-428A. 

House GOP to Unveil a One-Year, 20 Percent Tax Break for Small Businesses
By Sam Goldfarb, CQ Staff

Hoping to strengthen their brand as the party that supports low taxes, House Republicans will unveil legislation Wednesday that would provide a large new tax break to smaller companies, Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting of the House Republican Conference, Cantor, R-Va., said the bill would make it make it “easier for small businessmen and women to get back into the game and keep more of their money so it can be invested to retain and create more jobs.”

The legislation, a House Republican leadership aide said, would provide a temporary tax deduction to businesses that employ fewer than 500 people.

The deduction would reduce the taxable income of eligible businesses by 20 percent for tax year 2012 only. It would apply to companies that pay the corporate income tax as well as to individual business owners and to shareholders who pay taxes on the distributed profits from partnerships and S corporations, which are taxed like partnerships.

Despite observations that the bill might benefit the owners of small, highly leveraged investment shops, such as hedge funds, the aide said it would contain “minimal restrictions” to have the largest possible economic impact.

Cantor, the lead sponsor of the bill, previously said the House would vote on the small-business tax cut by April 15, the traditional deadline for filing individual income tax returns. The tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is expected to mark up the bill sometime before then.

Republicans committed themselves to considering a small-business tax cut earlier this year, after having talked about that possibility since before the 2010 midterm elections. And although Democrats are likely to attack the legislation as a giveaway to millionaires, Republicans are betting that voters will embrace any tax cut before this year’s election.

The debate would, at the very least, put Republicans in the familiar position of promoting a tax cut — a tactic they seemed to cede to Democrats during the recent fight over extending the popular payroll tax cut.

That battle ended with GOP lawmakers agreeing to legislation that continued the Social Security payroll tax at a reduced rate of 4.2 percent through the end of this year without the offsetting spending cuts that House Republicans had originally demanded.

Although Republicans typically say tax cuts do not need be offset with spending cuts or revenue increases, they had argued that the payroll tax cut was a special case because of its link to Social Security. And in a nod to supply-side economic principles, they have said that reducing the tax burden on employers would be a more effective way to create jobs than providing workers with extra money to spend on goods and services.
There were signs Tuesday that Democrats might be careful in how they react to the small-business tax cut bill. House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said he did not know the specifics of Cantor’s bill but liked the general idea of helping smaller companies.

“We have had tax cuts, as you know, when we were in charge for small businesses and numerous tax cuts to encourage hiring of people, to encourage investing in business equipment,” Hoyer said. “So we want to see that; we want to encourage small businesses to grow.”