Legislative Update with Jay Kruse

​Government funding clock is ticking!  While our attention is glued to the IRS reporting proposal, a government shutdown looms unless an agreement is met by September 30. 

by Jay Kruse, Chief Advocacy Officer 

Tick tock, tick tock, the government funding clock is ticking.
Much of our recent focus has been on the IRS Reporting Proposal which is part of the Build Back Better Act and budget reconciliation process.  However, a government shutdown looms unless Congress can come to an agreement on a Continuing Resolution (CR) prior to midnight on Thursday, September 30th. Senate Democrats are facing Republican opposition after linking a debt-ceiling hike with stopgap government funding.  Republicans have indicated they will back a clean CR that focuses on government funding, and Democrats seem likely to decouple the debt ceiling from the CR, ensuring the government remains funded at least temporarily.

All eyes will continue to be on the Senate this week as they race to fund the government, consider a debt-ceiling increase, and continue markup of the Build Back Better Act that will likely be passed through the budget reconciliation process toward the middle of October.

What does this all mean for credit unions?
It means we need to keep up our opposition efforts on the IRS Reporting Proposal.  It is not dead! Check out how Senator Thune is leading the opposition charge in the Senate in today’s Memo here.

Everything is still in play.  The $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB) is likely to shrink in size in order to increase its odds of passing through the Senate.  While this might seem like a good thing, eliminating the need for the intrusive IRS Reporting Proposal as a “pay-for,” the IRS Proposal is now also being linked to a repeal of the “SALT cap.” The SALT cap is the $10,000 limit or “cap” on federal tax deductions for State And Local Taxes paid.  If this SALT cap is repealed, taxpayers who itemize deductions would not be limited to the amount of state and local taxes paid they could write off on their federal tax return, thus passing the tax bill on to the federal government.

As of early this week, over 300,000 messages have been sent to Congress though CUNA’s national Action Alert! That includes 9,573 coming out of the state of South Dakota and 543 out of North Dakota.  Have you considered activating your members through CUNA’s Member Activation Program (MAP)? There is still time to ask them to make their voices heard!  If you’re not subscribed to the MAP program, you can learn more about it and opt in here to share this Action Alert with your members.  If you have any questions about how to best utilize the MAP program, don’t hesitate to contact me.  Let’s continue to sound the alarm and put this IRS Reporting Proposal in its grave in time for Halloween!
​
As always, don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected] with any questions or comments.

---