NLBMDA outlines legislative priorities
WASHINGTON, D.C. - As the National Lumber and Building Material Dealer Association’s Spring Meeting and Legislative Conference continued Thursday morning, dealer members were presented with top industry legislative priorities before heading to Capitol Hill and lobbying members of Congress.
Jacob Carter, NLBMDA director of government affairs, broke down three pieces of legislation that will have a big impact on the LBM industry.
The association’s top priority is the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. The bipartisan bill strengthens the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to increase investment in affordable housing. The legislation also calls for the building and preservation of 2 million housing units over the next 10 years.
According to Carter, the act would support nearly 3 million jobs while adding $120 billion in additional tax revenue and more than $346 billion in wages and business
income. The legislation also comes at a time when housing and associated economic activity is more critical than ever to address the affordable housing crisis.
“This is the most important federal housing policy in American history,” Carter said.
Over the past 30 years, the housing credit has generated approximately $643 billion in wages and business income and $223 billion in tax revenues, supporting approximately 5.7 million jobs.
But without LIHTC, there would be virtually no private investment in
affordable housing since it is fundamentally uneconomic to build housing that very low-income people can afford, according to the NLBMDA.
The housing legislation also allows states to maximize affordable housing production and preservation by lowering the threshold of Private Activity Bond financing – from 50% to 25% – which is required to trigger the maximum amount of 4% housing credits, which is needed for financial feasibility.
Additionally, the bill accelerates the implementation of the allocation increase
from the previous five years to two years, taking into account the increased and urgent need for affordable housing.
As of the end of the 117th Congress, ending on Jan. 3, the bill received solid bipartisan support including 207 House and 43 Senate co-sponsors.
“There is not a lot of legislation that goes through the House and the Senate that has bipartisan support like this,” Carter noted.
With supply chain limitations and a tight labor pool both impacting the industry, the NLBMDA is also supporting the Safer Highways and Increased Performance for
Interstate Trucking (SHIP IT) Act.
The NLBMDA noted that the nation is experiencing an 80,000-truck-driver shortage, which has a negative ripple effect for every part of the supply chain. And the median age for a truck driver is between 51 and 52 years old, demonstrating that the need for more drivers will be even greater in the coming years.
This bill is designed to recruit new truck drivers and retain existing truck drivers through tax credits for the next 2 years, offering $10,000 for new drivers and $7,500 for existing drivers. The policy also allows for drivers to apply for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grants to cover driver schooling costs.
Other highlights of the SHIP IT Act include:
- Allowing states to opt into pilot programs that permit trucks with at least six axles to weigh up to 91,000 pounds on interstate highways;
- Provides the Secretary of Transportation the authority to relax truck weight limits during emergencies to help with relief efforts;
- Makes it easier for people to become truck drivers by streamlining the CDL process, making it easier for states and third parties to administer CDL tests; and
- Expands access to truck parking and rest facilities for commercial truck drivers.
Meanwhile, with credit card swiping fees having doubled over the past decade, the NLBMDA is also pushing the Credit Card Competition Act. In 2021 alone, credit card swipe fees jumped by 25% to a record $137.8 billion, the NLBMDA said.
The bipartisan bill addresses excessive credit card swipe fees for small businesses by allowing access to more credit card payment network options. The NLBMDA said other features include the legislation helping to fix a broken market that has allowed megabanks and global card networks to block competition and unfairly profit at the expense of small retailers and American families.
Visa and MasterCard control 80% of the U.S. credit card market and hold a near-monopoly over credit card processing. This lack of competition has resulted in rising fees. There are a dozen competitive networks that could process credit card transactions but they have been blocked from entering the market by dominant card networks.
This bill requires that credit cards be able to be routed over at least two unaffiliated networks. One could still be Visa or MasterCard while the second could be networks like NYCE, Star, SHAZAM, American Express, or Discover.
If passed, the legislation could provide a big boost to small businesses, the NLBMDA said.
Credit card swipe fees amount to about $900 a year for the average family and small businesses could save upward of $11 billion annually by bringing routing competition to credit card networks.
“Credit card swipe fees are most merchants' highest cost after labor, and this drives up prices for consumers,” Carter said.
