Florida Judge Rules Health Care Reform Law Unconstitutional

As NJECPAC has been reporting for some time the health care reform law H.R.3590 ~ The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court based upon its mandate that every American purchase health insurance.

A second Federal Judge has now found that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  is unconstitutional, only this time the judge went further.

A Federal Judge in Pensacola Florida, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson threw out the Obamacare health care law declaring it unconstitutional because it violates the Commerce Clause. 

The Judges ruling that the individual mandate is "not severable" from the rest of the law places  even laws noncontroversial provisions in  jeopardy. The action all but ensures this case will arrival before the Nations Supreme Court before it is fully implemented.  Read More

Explore More at NJECPAC

Explore NJECPAC's YouTube Channel

NLRB ISSUES PROPOSED RULE ON LABOR RIGHTS NOTICE

Obama Appointed Controversial
NLRB Member Craig Becker
 by Recess Appointment

On December 22, 2010, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)that will require all private sector employers to post an 11" x 17" notice in their workplaces providing detailed information to employees about their rights to organize or join a union under the National Labor Relations Act.

Under the requirement, employers would face a number of sanctions for failing to post the notice. Those sanctions include: a charge of unfair labor practices; extending the having the time limits for filing other unfair labor practice charges against the employer; and having the NLRB consider the failure to post the notice as evidence of unlawful motive in other unfair labor practice cases.

The NLRB will use language that is close to what is in the DOL Poster used by Federal Contractors. Board Member Brian Hayes (R) filed a dissent to the rulemaking, asserting “the Board lacks the statutory authority to promulgate or enforce,” the NPRM.

The NLRB is accepting comments for 60 days from the issue date. To submit comments, click here.
To view the NLRB press release and fact sheet, click here.For further information about the NLRB, visit www.nlrb.gov.     

Barack Obama and organized labor have made no secret about promoting each other's interests. Last week Obama renominated Craig Becker to the NLRB who is currently serving via a Presidential recess appointment. Craig Becker has served as Associate General Counsel to both the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Becker is so pro-union he previously opined that "employers should have no right to be heard" in cases before the NLRB and “‘Employees’ only choice,” explained Mr. Becker, “should be over which set of union officials get ‘exclusive’ power to negotiate their wages, benefits, and work rules.” Read More On Craig Becker

Download Copy of the Poster from the "Helpful Links" List at NJECPAC

Bernanke Says Small-Business Lending Should Improve In 2011

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke
& FDIC Chair Sheila Bair

Small-business lending is expected to remain tight in 2011, but is expected to improve over last year. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairwoman Sheila Bair said at a recent forum.

"Overall it's still a very tight situation, but things have stopped getting worse and are looking a little better," Bernanke said.

Those sentiments are echoed in NFIB data that show lending conditions are better than they were in 2008, but remain well below levels before the recession began.

(FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair, who also participated in a panel with Bernanke at the event, agreed that the situation for small business lending has improved. “We think it is turning. Most banks are profitable again. They are working through their troubled loans. We have lower rates of delinquencies and charge-offs. There is a lot beyond our control but if things continue as they are, it’s slowly getting better and I think you will see lending activity pick up,” she said.

Bair and Bernanke made their comments at a forum entitled “Overcoming Obstacles to Small Business Lending,” held at the FDIC’s offices in Arlington, Va. Read More 

Explore More at NJECPAC

Government To Crackdown On Businesses That Misclassify Workers As Independent Contractors

Worker misclassification costs the federal government $1.6 billion annually. In late 2010 the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced an interagency misclassified worker initiative designed to target and pursue employers who misclassify workers. The DOL is dedicating $25 million and at least 100 employees to this initiative.

    

While not good news for employers who misclassify workers, the initiatives are good news for employers who properly classify their employees, because employers who misclassify workers do not pay into the unemployment or workers' compensation pools, employers who comply with the law must pay more than they otherwise would have to pay if more employers.

Many businesses mistakenly believe they have discretion to designate a worker as an employee or an independent contractor, or that however the business and the worker prefer to characterize the relationship controls.

As State & Federal taxing authorities rely more heavily on IRS Form 1099 data to determine which businesses to target for a worker misclassification audit, the names on 1099s could become one of a business' biggest points of vulnerability.

Employers who misclassify workers run risks that include, but are not limited to: having to pay back taxes, interest and penalties; owing back wages and penalties for violating federal and state wage and hour laws; penalties for failing to obtain and properly maintain Form I-9s; jeopardizing the ERISA qualified status of their 401(k) or pension plans; and owing more for workers' compensation premiums. 

On the state level the costs are also dramatic. More States will be utilizing IRS Form 1099 data to target businesses for audit and a growing number of States Including New Jersey are moving to enact legislation designed to increase revenues when misclassified workers are discovered.

Read More            Explore More at NJECPAC

Half of All States Now Suing to Stop Obamacare

If it is allowed to be implemented, Obamacare will eventually do deep and Irreparable Harm To Our Nation’s Budget Deficit. But while Obamacare is more of a long-term threat to fiscal health at the federal level, it is a  clear and present danger to the states. Of the 34 million Americans who gain health insurance through Obamacare, over half (18 million) will receive it through Medicaid.

While the federal government will pay for a portion of the liabilities it doesnt pay for it all and it will not pay for any of the States administrative costs for adding 18 Million Americans to their welfare rolls. That amounts to Billions in unfunded federal mandates for states to absorb.

33 Republican governors have signed a Letter to the White House and Congress making an emphatic appeal that the laws Medicaid provisions be repealed. It is also why the newly elected governors of Ohio, Oklahoma, Maine, and Wisconsin have all decided to sue the Obama administration in hopes of stopping Obamacare. Specifically, Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma Has Announced that the State will pursue its own case against the law, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will add their states to Florida’s multi-state suit.

Additionally, Maine's new Attorney General William Schneider Announced Maine would also join the the Florida litigation. That brings the number of states on the Florida suit to 23 and the total number of states suing to stop Obamacare (which includes Virginia and Oklahoma) to 25.

Read More

Explore More at NJECPAC

NLRB Threatens To Sue Four States Over Secret Ballot union Laws

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has threatened to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah over constitutional amendments guaranteeing workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections. NLRB’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said the amendments conflict with federal law.

Business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce, IEC, ABC and the CDW favor the amendments, arguing that secrecy is necessary to protect workers against union intimidation. They are concerned that Congress might enact legislation requiring employers to allow the "card check" process for forming unions instead of secret ballot elections.

The NLRB has sent letters to the Attorney General of each state warning them that their amendments are pre-empted by the supremacy clause of the Constitution and their new laws are unconstitutional. Read More

Phil Kerpen, vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity said the NLRB's action "shows how determined the board is to accomplish card check by backdoor means, against the wishes of the American people and Congress." Read More.

Explore More at NJECPAC

Who Needs Congress When You Can Legislate by Regulation?

Good legislative policy requires, as we have seen from its absence in the prior Congress, patience and compromise. A party with electoral control over both chambers of Congress and the presidency can probably pass a bill into law, but you rarely can get everything you want if the goal is to maximize a national consensus. 

Obama and his Democratic majority claim to have gotten much of their agenda through, but until the president was forced to engage in coalition building in the lame duck session, as a result of the November 2 “shellacking” taken by his party, most of the bills supported only by the far left are under attack by the new Congress and the courts.

Knowing that his free wheeling presidency has come to an end, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.” But constitutionalists ask, "what Executive Power to make law"?

The role of the President under the U.S. Constitution is not to make laws, but simply to execute the laws passed by Congress. Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution begins: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” If the Constitution mandates that “all” law-making powers reside in the Congress, then it stands to reason none is left for the President. The President's job is that "he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed" under Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.

Read More at The New America    Read More at Big Government

Explore More at NJECPAC 

OSHA News

OSHA Withdraws Proposed Interpretation Related to Occupational Noise

On January 19th OSHA announced that it is withdrawing a proposal to expand the official interpretation of the term "feasible" in relation to occupational noise exposure standards.This is a proposal that NJECPAC has been monitoring since its introduction

OSHA intended to reinterpret the word “feasible” to mean “capable of being done,” meaning that the agency would be able to cite a company for not implementing administrative controls unless the company can demonstrate that implementing such controls would put them out of business or threaten the viability of their business. 

In a Dec. 13 letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), co-chairs of the Senate Task Force on Manufacturing, expressed concerns that the expanded interpretation would force businesses into making expensive changes that would inhibit job creation. Snowe and Lieberman asked that OSHA consider alternative interpretations and unintended consequences of the proposal in addition to noting the lack of data to back up the proposed change. Read More

OSHA Reform Bill Not Sent to Floor for Vote

Due to the efforts of the small business community to educate Congress about the drastic effects the OSHA reform language included in the mine safety bill would have, House leadership has not sent the bill to the floor for a vote. The Legislation would have added severe criminal penaties for employer violations.

IEC and the Coalition for Workplace Safety (CWS) have continued their work must dispel the myth that employers only engage in workplace safety practices because the government forces them to do it.  IEC and CWS submitted letters citing our specific objections to H.R. 5663 prior to the House Education and Labor Committee hearing on July 13, 2010.  The CWS letter was signed onto by a broad array of employer groups, including groups representing nearly all fields in the construction industry, and all IEC Chapters. Read More  

Explore More at NJECPAC

To view IEC’s letter click here and to view the Coalition letter click here.

House Votes 245-189 To Repeal H.R.3590 Health Care Law

Taking their first major step toward fullfilling the publics 2010 election mandate to roll back the Massive Health Care Law the House voted 245-189 To Repeal H.R.3590. The law dominated the American political landscape for almost two years that resulted in a firestorm at the ballot box in the midterm election. Read More

The House has scheduled another vote for Thursday on a resolution instructing House committees to start working on an alternative health-care overhaul package which may include Federal Association Health Plans

Harry Reid has already said he will not even allow a vote on the bill in the still Democrat controlled Senate. Even if by some chance significant health-care repeal legislation passed both chambers of Congress, Obama wouldn't hesitate to use his veto pen, which would be at his own political peril. Read More

NJECPAC opposed H.R.3590 from the day it was introduced. We knew before the bill was passed that it could only increase Health Care costs. Despite the White House and the Senate and House Democrats claims that the bill would reduce health care costs our insight has been proved to be correct. Despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people, the then Democrat controlled House & Senate flawed belief that the bill would lower costs led to the bills passage. 

  

The country is now starting to see the proof of the insight that our PAC Board of Governors and many others had when taking a position against the bill.  Across the country. Small Businesses including Electrical Contractors are seeing 19% to 48% increases in their health care premiums, which is a direct result of H.R.3590 - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  

Explore More at NJECPAC

FDIC Sets Up Hotline For Small Businesses

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has created a toll-free hotline and website for owners of small businesses who have questions or concerns about the availability of credit.

"A combination of factors have created issues and challenges for small businesses, but it is turning in terms of credit availability," said FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair on Thursday. "I think it is going to get better, and we're working to facilitate that with the dialogue this conference will spark, along with our new hotline and website dedicated to small businesses."

The toll-free number is 1-855-FDIC-BIZ (1-855-334-2249). To complement the new small-business hotline, the FDIC also created a dedicated website.

The site is: www.fdic.gov/smallbusiness

Explore More at NJECPAC