Amador County – Rep. Dan Lungren received a nod from the President last week for his health care amending bill, which has been referred to a committee in the early going of the 112th Congress.
Dan Lungren, representative of California’s District 3, including Amador County, was “surprised, but pleased” that Obama gave support to his effort to change a portion of the healthcare bill, according to a Sacramento Bee report Thursday. ¶ Obama in his State of the Union address Jan. 25 referred to Lungren’s bill, “The Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act.”
In a Wall Street Journal transcription, Obama said in part: “I have heard rumors that a few of you still have concerns about our new health care law. So let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you. We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses.”
The bill was initially introduced after last year’s approval of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” but it fell short of the 218 signatures needed to force a vote. Lungren re-introduced the legislation in January, saying it was a “repeal of a government-run health care system,” and an alternative to the Affordable Care Act. Lungren said: “Last year the American people and small business spoke and I listened,” and the Affordable Care Act “includes a number of provisions that are of concern to the American people.”
Lungren’s bill would repeal a 1099 tax reporting requirement from the law that would require businesses to report to the IRS any purchases of goods or services from one company that total more than $600 in one year.
The Republican Party last September issued a “Pledge to America” to “repeal this job-killing small business mandate.” The pledge said: “This 1099 reporting mandate is so overbearing that the IRS ombudsman has determined that the agency is ill-equipped to handle all the resulting paperwork.”
In mid-January, Lungren’s bill had 245 co-sponsors, including 12 Democrats. By Thursday it had 263 co-sponsors, including 27 Democrats. On Jan. 12, Lungren’s H.R. 4 was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means, where it could be deliberated, investigated and revised before potential general debate.
The website GovTrack listed 29 organizations supporting Lungren’s legislation, including the National Small Business Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
