NASE in the News

2022 Starts with a Wild Legislative Agenda

The year is 2022, the month is January. And things are wild.

Suffice it to say, the start of 2022 has the makings of a great political thriller: high stakes legislation (voting rights, Build Back Better, US Competitiveness targeting China), political intrigue (Senators Manchin and Sinema), and a boogie man (Covid-19 Omicron variant), set against a mid-term election that will most likely flip the US House of Representatives and turbo charge the political environment leading up to 2024 Presidential campaign.

By January 17, most of the legislative storyline was put to bed. The voting rights legislation failed in the US Senate, Build Back Better was officially dead, and for unknown reasons, the House is currently struggling with how to advance a wildly popular, bipartisan bill that aims and strengthening the US’s intellectual property position against China. And the Covid-19 boogie man, continues to rage, causing continued upheaval to businesses and families.

In looking past January, here are a few things that the NASE advocacy team is watching:

• Challenging tax filing season. The IRS announced this month that they will begin accepting 2021 returns, two weeks earlier than previously announced to help try and alleviate any tax filing crunches. The IRS continues to express concern over the impact of Covid-19 on its workforce, increased responsibilities and at the same time, dealing with lack of resources, primarily budgetary.
• Legislation in support of the self-employed. In looking for a silver lining from the Covid-19 pandemic, the recognition and inclusion of the self-employed in many of the federal assistance programs was a welcome acknowledgement of the powerful role the millions of self-employed play in our economy. We will continue to work with Congress to memorialize the self-employed in many of those programs, for example, unemployment insurance. 
• Impact of a possible foreign policy crisis between Ukraine and Russia. While not a direct correlation for the self-employed, big, global events have a way of taking all of the oxygen out of the room and in this case, a conflict between Ukraine and Russia would have an immediate chilling impact on US public policy. 

We continue to look forward to the opportunity to advocate on behalf of the NASE community and will report back on our efforts.