For workers and entrepreneurs, few places are as ripe with economic opportunity as the United States of America. Our world-leading workforce, natural resources, educational institutions, rule of law committed to protecting capital investment, and unique features such as deepwater ports providing access to export goods and services to consumers across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans provide opportunities for American families with few rivals elsewhere around the globe. Despite these economic strengths, there is much we can improve. The federal government remains inefficient, and we must address issues such as our spending-driven budget deficit. Likewise, too many work-capable Americans remain on the sidelines despite millions of good jobs available in our economy.
Efforts to address the waste, fraud, and abuse in federally funded programs are vitally important for the fiscal health of our country, as are expanded efforts to help sidelined Americans connect with good jobs. For this reason, the reconciliation bill passed by the House enhances accountability for state administration of federal benefit programs and improves incentives for beneficiaries to find meaningful work.
While our nation’s unemployment rate remains low by historical standards at 4.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also shows the workforce participation rate still remained below pre-COVID levels in April. With more job openings in our economy (7.39 million) than job seekers (7.2 million) we can’t just rely on people actively looking for work to meet the current needs of American employers. In order to help address this issue, the reconciliation package requires able-bodied Medicaid recipients spend at least 20 hours per week working, seeking work, receiving education, or doing community service. This change to Medicaid mirrors existing requirements applied to federal cash welfare and SNAP (food stamps) in the 1990s, which were successful in both decreasing the cost of the program and ensuring more work-capable Americans entered the workforce.
This week I spoke with the CEO and Chairman of Pender, NE’s Blue Ox, a family-owned manufacturing operation marking 100 years of doing business and employing Nebraskans this year. He emphasized the resilience of Nebraska businesses which have the capacity to adjust to various factors in the marketplace and tax code. However, he said long-term stability in federal policy is needed to truly empower hard-working Americans to plan for the future.
To unlock growth for small businesses, the House-passed reconciliation bill would increase the Section 179 small business equipment expensing threshold to $2.5 million and permanently raise the 199A pass-through deduction to 23 percent. This provides tax relief and certainty for small businesses who create jobs for 62 percent of our nation’s workforce. Another provision in the package, based on my American Investment in Manufacturing and Main Street Act, would ensure industries often required to take out loans to finance investments in facilities and equipment can deduct earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization—a standard called EBITDA.
I recognize the importance of predictability in the tax code for our businesses and workers in the Third District, and I am committed to delivering the certainty needed to sustain robust economic growth. Small businesses form the backbone of our nation’s communities and job creation, and I will never stop fighting for them.