Congress Begins Consideration of 2022 Budget Reconciliation Bill – IFPTE Weighs In with Ways and Means Committee Letter
This week, the committees in the House of Representatives began debating legislative proposals for the 2022 Budget Reconciliation package. In a letter to the Ways and Means Committee, IFPTE advocated in favor of provisions to expand Trade Adjustment Assistance, strengthening the proposed paid family and medical leave benefit, expanding Medicare benefits, and for “progressive pay-fors to offset the cost of the bill’s investments in innovation infrastructure, resilient supply chains, housing, clean energy, education, healthcare, childcare, paid leave, labor law enforcement, and more.”
Read IFPTE’s letter to Members of the House Ways and Means Committee below and download a copy of the letter here.
September 9, 2021
Dear Member of the House Ways and Means Committee:
As the executive officers of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE), a labor union representing upwards of 90,000 union members who work in a diverse set of industries in the federal, public, and private sectors, we write to you regarding the Ways and Means Committee markup of Subtitles A through E of Senate Concurrent Resolution 14 on the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget.
This $3.5 trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation package is an opportunity to provide transformative investments that benefit American families, their communities, and the economy. As your committee marks up these sections of the budget reconciliation bill, we urge you to include and strengthen the following investments and reject any weakening amendments:
Modernize Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) to expand eligibility, increase funding, and provide that workers who lose their jobs as a result of unjust trade policies have additional tools and support as they seek reemployment. Reforms to TAA are necessary to ensure Americans facing hardship due to international competition have the federal support they need to weather the economic cycles, downturns, and crises of the 21st Century.
Provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to all workers, including federal employees, with reimbursement for employer-sponsored paid leave benefits. We strongly urge the Committee to include robust wage replacement and incorporate Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney’s Comprehensive Paid Leave for Federal Employees Act.
Expand Medicare benefits and ensure quality health care for seniors by providing Medicare dental, vision, and hearing benefits, committing to adequate staffing ratios for skilled nursing facilities, and appropriating funds for health profession career pathways. We ask the Committee improve the proposed provisions by allowing seniors immediate access to expanded benefits, by lowering the eligibility age, and by including an out-of-pocket cap for Medicare beneficiaries. Finally, Medicaid expansion should be offered to states that did not opt into the program.
While the Committee will consider legislative proposals to generate revenue in a future markup session, we strongly believe the budget reconciliation package should include progressive pay-fors to offset the cost of the bill’s investments in innovation infrastructure, resilient supply chains, housing, clean energy, education, healthcare, childcare, paid leave, labor law enforcement, and more. In particular, we urge you to include the following revenue measures, supported by President Biden, in upcoming Committee markups:
Raise the corporate tax rate to at least 28% and establish a 15% minimum corporate tax rate, partially undoing the $2 trillion plus Trump tax cuts which slashed the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. These measures would raise over $1 trillion in revenues over 10 years.
Reform the tax code to curtail offshore corporate tax dodging by doubling the tax rate for offshore profits from 10.5% to 21% and ending the shifting of intellectual property offshore. This would raise another $1 trillion in revenues over 10 years.
Close the carried interest tax loophole that allows millionaires to dodge taxes on unrealized capital gains. While this affects the richest 0.3% of taxpayers, this reform would raise $352 billion over 10 years.
Restore the top individual tax rate to the pre-Trump tax cut level of 39.6%, close loopholes that allow employers to avoid taxes that fund the Affordable Care Act, and invest $80 billion to strengthen IRS enforcement of corporate tax evaders. These revenue measures would provide over $1 trillion in revenue over 10 years.
Cap the value of itemized deductions at 28% for couples with income over $400,000, restore the estate tax to 2009 levels and close estate tax loopholes, and end the 20% deduction for owners of pass-through businesses earning over $400,000. These revenue measures would provide over $580 billion in revenue.
Establish a wealth tax of 2% on household wealth exceeding $50 million or 3% on billionaires, raising $3 trillion in revenue over 10 years without raising taxes on 99.5% of households.
Enact a financial transaction tax of as little as 10 cents on every $100 worth of trades in stock and other securities, which would discourage harmful financial speculation while raising $750 billion over 10 years.
Allow Medicare drug price negotiation and ensure reasonable prices on all drugs, including generics and drugs with limited competition for consumers and businesses. The government savings from drug price negotiation along the lines of H.R .3, Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, would generate nearly $500 billion over 10 years and pay for provisions expanding health care to seniors and those unable to afford coverage.
Thank you for considering our priorities. As your committees mark up the budget reconciliation bill, we urge you advance legislative text that delivers on key promises made to voters by the Biden administration and Congressional leadership.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly or contact IFPTE Legislative Director Faraz Khan at 202-239-4892.
Sincerely,
Matthew S. Biggs Gay Henson
IFPTE President IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer