The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday it is optimistic about the stimulus package currently in the works yet warned that the group may butt heads with Democratic leaders over issues like climate change regulation and energy policy.
"The chamber is very encouraged by the direction the President-elect is taking with his recovery package," Chamber CEO Tom Donohue said Wednesday, as he presented his organization's 2009 State of American Business report and its proposals for economic recovery. "Even so, we will not hesitate to vigorously fight wrong-headed proposals when necessary."
The chamber remains optimistic it can find a workable approach to energy solutions with Congress, said Bruce Josten, the agency's executive vice president of government affairs, even though it does not see eye to eye with the new leadership on the issue.
"Technology's the ultimate solution here," Josten said. "We continue to pass laws promoting the development and acceleration of new technologies, and then we don't fund it and walk away from it."
He cited the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included incentives for the development of 72 different energy-related technologies. Two-thirds of those have remained unfunded, he said, with the final third underfunded.
The chamber leaders said they expect to see more incentives for energy efficiency in the stimulus package, by way of infrastructure funding.
"We're going to make a down payment going forward, but we're not going to get everything done in one stimulus package," Josten said.
Lawmakers should consider all means of securing affordable, efficient energy, especially given the current economic climate, the chamber said. The United States is the "Saudi Arabia of coal," its report says, and the country should continue to invest in clean coal technologies.
The chamber also recommends Congress facilitate the immediate expansion of nuclear energy.
"It will give us clean power at low prices for a lifetime," Donohue said. "We're going to beat the drum on it."
Donohue argued that decisions about energy regulation should not be left up to independent regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency. Instead, it should be in the hands of Congress, which can view energy and climate change issues in the context of the larger economy.
"A system run by regulators from the top down that could stop any economic recovery in its tracks is not something this country needs," Donohue said. "It is our belief anything we do about CO2 or to keep people in their jobs ought to be global in nature or use U.S. innovation and technology."
The chamber will not back any particular approach to emissions regulations until it has had a chance to sit down with all the relevant players, he said.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the new chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is "going to be a challenge," Donohue said.
Waxman advocated for stronger carbon emissions regulations than Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), whom he replaced as head of the committee this year.
The chamber is also encouraging Congress to provide more assistance to the broadband industry, starting by funding the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which facilitates the collection of data regarding broadband deployment and establishes a grant program to promote Internet usage. The chamber also supports providing the private sector with incentives like tax credits to build out broadband infrastructure.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations filed suit against U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week, complaining that the Homeland Security Department cannot legally require federal contractors to use its online worker verification database.
Beginning January 15, 2009, the department will require certain federal contractors and subcontractors to use its E-Verify system, an online database run by the Homeland Security Department and the Social Security Administration against which employers can check a person's work status. Use of the system is voluntary, but President George Bush signed an executive order earlier this year requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their workers' employment eligibility.
The lawsuit, filed on December 23 in the U.S. District Court for Maryland's southern division, asks the court to declare the executive order and subsequent rule changes to be illegal and void, since the president's order is in direct contradiction to the law, which says that no person or entity shall be compelled to participate in the E-Verify program. The only exemptions are federal agencies, the legislative branch, and certain immigration law violators.
Along with the chamber, the plaintiffs in the case include the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Society for Human Resource Management, the American Council on International Personnel, and the HR Policy Association.
The rule change will apply to all new hires for federal contractors with projects exceeding $100,000 and for sub-contractors with projects exceeding $3,000. It also will apply to certain existing employees who were hired after November 6, 1986, but the plaintiffs complained the "relative ambiguity" of the new rules will force many companies to electronically verify all of their employees hired after that date.
While Bush's executive order stated that the new requirement was "designed to promote economy and efficiency in federal government procurement," the lawsuit alleges it will create a "significant expense and time burden" on many of the plaintiffs' member companies. It also says the requirement "increases substantially the likelihood that many of plaintiffs' respective members will face expensive and time-consuming lawsuits brought by individuals who believe they have been discriminated against on the basis of race and/or national origin."
"The DHS intends to expand E-Verify on an unprecedented scale in a very short time frame and to impose liability on government contractors who are unable to comply," said Randy Johnson, vice president of Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits at the U.S. Chamber. "Given the current economy, now is not the time to add more bureaucracy and billions of dollars in compliance costs to America's businesses."
More than 90,000 employers have signed up to use E-Verify, said DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner, and the DHS' efforts to provide such programs are reflected in lower illegal immigration rates.
With the free system, "there is little excuse for companies to engage in hiring illegal workers," Keehner said. "This is just another delay tactic."
E-Verify, she said, shows "we have taken seriously the charge to gain back the trust of the American people to enforce immigration law."
Broadband development should not be stifled by federal regulation that intends to make networks more "neutral," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is arguing through two papers released Monday.
The papers, the first in a series of five that will examine the impact of broadband on certain user groups and for certain purposes, argue that the federal government's current loose regulatory structure has enabled broadband to become a "life-altering tool" both for the general population and for senior citizens specifically.
"An estimated $60 billion has been invested in broadband infrastructure by the communications industry this year," William Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber's vice president for environment, technology, and regulatory affairs, said in a statement. "Given these turbulent economic times, federal policy must continue to support this high-level of investment. This will spur job growth, innovation, and consumer choice."
The lack of Net neutrality laws or other federally-mandated regulations has spurred telecommunications companies to heavily invest in broadband infrastructure, according to the first paper, "Network Effects: An Introduction to Broadband Technology & Regulation." (PDF)
"Moving away from a pro-investment model would halt this organic progress and would have a devastating effect on the U.S. economy, investment, and innovation," it says. "Moreover, policies aimed at management practices are unnecessary and would serve only to chill innovation at the network level and at its edges, resulting in net consumer welfare losses."
Network owners need to be able to manage content flow in order to prioritize important data like 911 voice over IP calls, according to the paper, authored by Charles Davidson and Michael Santorelli of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School. The need to manage networks will only grow as the amount of services offered online grows, it says.
"A variety of proposals have been put forward to regulate the broadband sector under the guise of making the physical infrastructure more 'neutral' to the data flowing over it," the paper says, but such regulations would lessen incentives for investment in broadband and slow the development of content and applications.
The paper recommends legislators focus on targeting broadband funding in regions where it is most needed, reforming the Universal Service Fund, and embracing public-private partnerships to promote broadband deployment.
The second paper, "The Impact of Broadband on Senior Citizens," (PDF) recommends similar support for broadband deployment as well as educating seniors on the usefulness of broadband and expanding their options for getting online. If obstacles for adoption are removed, the paper says, broadband could transform senior life and senior care, just as the senior population is set to expand significantly.
The chamber will later release papers examining the impact of broadband deployment on telemedicine, education, and people with disabilities.
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