Action needed now on swipe fees!
- Send a comment to the Federal Reserve Board in favor of their proposed debit fee setting regulations. In December, after extensive analysis, the Federal Reserve released their first draft of these regulations, which include limiting the per transaction fee for debit purchases to between 7 and 12 cents. This represents a reduction in fees of approximately 80%. There is a comment period currently underway, in which the public is invited to weigh in on the proposed regulations. The comments are almost entirely from bankers (what else do bankers have to do all day but write comments to the Fed?) who are trying to water down, delay or repeal the regulations. In order to balance out the public comments, PLEASE click here to send your own letter, which you can edit or write in your own comments. This is extremely important!
- Register for NACS Day on the Hill March 9-10. Join your industry colleagues in Washington, DC, to lobby your members of Congress. NACS will set up appointments for you and conduct a group briefing prior to your meetings. Additionally, there will be NACS staff attending most meetings to help you find your way. The credit card lobby is planning on bringing hundreds, if not thousands of bankers to town in February to lobby against the swipe fee regulations. Do not let them distort this issue! Stand up for yourself and your business! Click here to register.
- Respond to NACS Calls to Action. As this battle develops over the next several months, NACS will be sending calls to action requesting you to write letters, make phone calls or arrange appointments with your members of Congress back home. When you get these emails please open them and respond to the request. It is because of the tremendous grassroots pressure the convenience store industry placed on Congress that these much needed reforms are close to becoming a reality. It is essential that we keep up the pressure these last few months! Click here to send the most recent letter.
NACS Staff Contact: Lyle Beckwith, lbeckwith@nacsonline.com
On Wednesday the Senate voted 81-17 to roll back a new tax reporting requirement that was included in the health care law. The 1099 reporting requirement would have forced business owners to fill tax documents on all cumulative purchases from a single vendor that total more than $600 a year. It was included in the law because it was estimated to raise about $17 billion in previously uncollected taxes.
Business groups, including NACS, have been opposed to the provision from the start because of the enormous paperwork burden it would place on businesses of all sizes. This marks the first piece of the health care bill that has been brought up for repeal. The Senate tried to address this issue in the lame duck session at the end of 2010 but was not able to come to an agreement. Fortunately, this time, a bipartisan approach worked and it passed overwhelmingly. It also helped that President Obama mentioned this tax burden specifically in his state of the union speech a few weeks ago.
NACS applauds the Senate for taking the first step and encourages the House to go ahead a take action. It is very possible we could see this issue resolved quickly which will be a huge win for all NACS members.
NACS Staff Contact: Julie Fields, jfields@nacsonline.com
A bill introduced this week by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Members James Inhofe (R-OK) would add a new section to the Clean Air Act exempting greenhouse gases from EPA??s jurisdiction, while repealing numerous agency actions to implement new emissions restrictions.
According to Congressional Quarterly Upton and Inhofe said in a joint statement, "With this draft proposal, we are initiating a deliberative, transparent process that we hope will prevent EPA from imposing by regulation the massive cap-and-trade tax that Congress rejected last year."
It is expected that the House will act first on the Upton-Inhofe legislation. There have been several bills introduced just this week which are meant to curtail EPA regulations requiring new or expanded large sources of carbon dioxide emissions, such as power plants and oil refineries, to install modern technology to reduce emissions. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV) have separately introduced proposals that would limit or delay the EPA??s ability to enforce greenhouse gas regulations.
NACS Staff Contact: Corey Fitze, cfitze@nacsonline.com