House passes Small Business Bill of Rights – Congressman McCotter joined his Republican colleagues in the U.S. House today in approving legislation calling for a Small Business Bill of Rights giving America’s small employers the tools they need to grow their businesses and create jobs. Passage of the resolution comes during National Small Business Week.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy yet they are forced to contend with layer after layer of complicated regulations and tax barriers,” said McCotter, who is a member of the House Small Business Committee.
H. Res. 22, authored by Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL), states that America’s small employers should have:
· The right to join together to purchase affordable health insurance for small business employees, who make up a large portion of the millions of Americans without health care coverage.
· The right to simplified tax laws that allow family-owned small businesses to survive over several generations and offer them incentives to grow.
· The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits that harm law-abiding small businesses and prevent them from creating new jobs.
· The right to be free of unnecessary, restrictive regulations and paperwork that waste the time and energy of small businesses while hurting production and preventing job creation.
· The right to relief from high energy costs by reducing our nation’s reliance on imported sources of energy and encouraging environmentally sound domestic production and conservation of energy.
· The right to equal treatment with large businesses when seeking access to start-up and expansion capital and credit.
· The right to open access to government procurement through the breaking up of bundled contracts to give small businesses the ability to compete for federal government business.
Medicare Rural Home Health Services Improvement Act – Congressman McCotter is a cosponsor of H. Res. 11, which extends, through 2007, the five percent add-on payment that health care providers serving patients in rural areas receive.
Background: Many home health agencies operating in rural areas are the only health care providers for miles around. If these agencies are forced to close because Medicare reduces payments, seniors may lose their only local source of health care. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), is endorsed by the American Association for Home Care, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, and the Visiting Nurses Association of America.
The legislation has been referred to the House sub-committee on Health.
Support for Children’s Hospitals and Pediatric Medicine – Congressman McCotter is a signatory on a letter to Congressman Ralph Regula, chairman of the House subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and related agencies, calling for continued funding for the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program.
Background: Independent children's hospitals play an indispensable role in children's health. They train a large portion of the future pediatric workforce, almost 30 percent of pediatricians and half of all pediatric specialists. They provide almost half the hospital care to children with serious illnesses.
Since 1999, Congress has taken extraordinary steps to provide funding for the children's hospital graduate medical education (CHGME) program. This program enables children's hospitals to train future pediatricians and pediatric specialists. It also assures that children's hospitals receive federal funding for their teaching programs similar to that all other teaching hospitals receive through Medicare. Congress has committed $303 million to the program for the last two years.
Social Security Benefits Tax Relief Act of 2005 – Congressman McCotter is a cosponsor of H. Res. 1517, which amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the 85 percent maximum tax rate on Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits enacted by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993.
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), appropriates, from the general fund, to the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund amounts equal to the reduction in revenues resulting from this repeal. It has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.
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